Built on Shifting Ground
by goldnheart
Summary: When a Senshi descends to earth to investigate the radio silence and reports of amassing energy, she gets more than she bargained for. Soon, her mission uncovers, or creates, the events which will destroy the Silver Millennium. Senshi/Shitennou. Some U/M
1. Warrior

In no way do I own Sailor Moon, just the plot and an occasional OC.

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Built on Shifting Ground

Chapter One:

The Warrior

She fell more than sat on the sand. The stuff quickly adhered to her skin, clinging to the sweat and the blood. The scent on the air was sweet and spoke of water, the bodies of the scouting party she'd encountered, downwind. The sand stung, grinding in her wounds as she tried to crawl the few inches forward toward her communicator. The transmission? Still unsent. Dropped the moment the horsemen came galloping over the dune, confirming the nature of the men she had, in the original message, categorized as only potentially hostile. Potentially, she laughed into the sand and hair plastered to her face. It sent fire up her torso as broken bones rubbed against themselves while the sand dug deeper into various gashes. Still, it took a few moments to stop laughing. Finally she lay still. Quickly, she edited the message.

"Sisters. Danger. Ignore the rule. Find me now." But it would not send. She cursed aloud. Evidently, she had not yet passed out of the Earthling transmission zone she'd unwittingly entered into the night before looking for the camp. No outside help for two more days.

She closed her eyes and sought to remember. In a moment the images she sought came forth from short-term memory and she saw, by moonlight and points of distant torchlight, a large camp now several km away. 50+ tents, minimum occupancy, she estimated at 5, maximum 10, horses kept in a large pin on the east of the camp. 250 to 500 soldiers. This attack had only been a scouting party, just eight men from that medium-sized encampment, armed for speed: light armor, sword or bows only. She needed to move. She was only an hours or so ride from their camp and she had no idea when they would be expected back, when they would be missed or looked for. But she knew better than to be found with the bodies when they did look.

Another memory shimmered into place. The top of the ridge, the highest point of the dune. She had surveyed the land for just a moment before moving. There lay an outcropping of trees and scrubs far in the distance like a green beauty mark on a vast expanse of hot skin. It would be quite a walk to get there, and a rather obvious place for a killer to flee to when the Earthling's went looking for one. But, she reasoned, she did not have much of a choice. She was too weak to teleport home and god knew there was nowhere to hide out there. Besides, water would let her clean her wounds and not die of thirst before even her accelerated healing rate could begin to seal the deep gashes and lacerations. Though the lagoon was not visible from the troth of the dune, she remembered the general direction. She made her decision and braced herself mentally against the pain.

How she made it off the ground, she'd never quite remember although somehow she did. But she would remember the walk. The weight of each step- like shackles on her legs, sinking into the deep sand then having to be pulled out again to advance. Like running in water. A hot, burning sea that rubbed your skin raw, undulating waves to be climbed and descended. It combined worst challenges of travel by land and sea, hills and heat, unstable footing and extra resistance. And the light was shifting. She wagered she'd been walking for an hours when, over another low dune, the lagoon became visible in the distance. They could have reached the bodies by now, if they had left when she did. She prayed they had not as she hobbled the remaining distance to the lagoon.

When she first reached the shade of a tree, she cried out in joy as the temperature dropped 15 degrees simply for lack of direct sunshine. She felt the ground under her feet through the sand-worn holes in her shoes. She had wished for her fuka violently during the fight, but dared not transform lest one of them escape and report that a senshi had been found, if anyone in that camp knew what one was, sneaking about an Earthling military encampment. It would defeat the purpose of wearing civilian clothing this whole time. Besides, by now she was too weak to transform if she tried. She reached down into the small pool for water, and hissed as it grazed a cut on her forearm. She drank. And drank. And drank, then permitted herself a few moments of rest as her now distended stomach tried to dispatch the water to demanding organs and limbs.

She woke twenty minutes later, her body trained to accept the perfect amount of sleep from a nap and no more. Two days. She need to stay alive for two more days. She looked at the horizon. The sun was beginning to set. Two and a half hours since she'd left the bodies. They would be coming for her. Soon.

She pushed herself forward, head throbbing with the exertion, and began to wash her wounds, bandaging them with pliable palm fronds and bits of string from her light robe. Satisfied with the work, she began to meditate, to accelerate her healing and beg the goddesses for help. There was no use trying to escape. Weakened as she was, she could not outrun them, only delay their encounter. And when they did meet, she would be weaker for having exhausted her energy trying to flee. So she meditated there as the sun fled the sky, chased by the waxing half-moon.

The moon felt her fear and heard her prayers for help. It performed a bit of glamor magic on the girl and the land around her to give her a story until help would arrive. It masked her tracks, making them look like caravan tracks leading back to the bodies and off into the desert, far from her. As for the girl, it dressed her in a slave girl's costume and manipulated her flesh so that the wounds looked like lash marks. And to prevent her exposing her identity, it suppressed her magic and kept her in meditations when a few soldiers from the camp found her. To them, she was quite obviously a runaway, beaten and unconscious from exhaustion, useful only as a source of information, while the rest of the men followed the tracks of into the desert after the real killers. In her meditations, the goddess Selene warned her of the magic done to help her, so the girl would be prepared to lie until the senshi rule kicked in: three days, no contact, and a search party is sent. But by the second day, they would be looking for her, preparing themselves should they need to help her escape. Two more days, she had to lie for two days and try to survive alone in enemy territory. Or at least men who she had made her enemies.

Two men selected for the task picked up the escaped slave and carried her on horseback back to their master, while the others travelled on after the caravan. Their king had demanded that anyone found be brought to him to be questioned. And they had no intention of disobeying. They laid her limp form on the red rugged floor of his tent and bowed low.

"My King, she was found, as you see, alone, arms chained, whipped, at a lagoon. North of Kashima by two hours ride. Her tracks were the only set out to the lagoon from where the bodies were found." Said the archer in green.

"Was she unarmed?" the man inquired, walk over to the girl's form.

"Yes, King." The archer answered.

"Have they found the caravan?"

"No King," the blue swordsman answered, "We just received a communication from them. They believe the caravan disbanded deep in the desert. Tracks go off in the direction of the four cities, and an abandoned cart was discovered there."

"Very well. Raiders must be back again. Send out the patrols better armed. I'll send notice for reinforcements tomorrow. Unless there is any other useful information"

"Just one thing my lord," Blue said looking at the ground, "The killings, the bodies, they're so, well, so neatly done. This looked professional, my King. Soldier-like. Someone who knew how to make quick work of killing."

"What was used?"

"Broad Sword and brute strength." Blue responded.

"Meaning?" The leader asked, slightly annoyed with the imprecision of his answer.

"Three men had their necks broken, sir. By hand." Answered the Archer.

The leader nodded but said nothing, dismissing them with a wave. He bent down to examine the girl. Beautiful, to be sure, although badly beaten. Odd looks for these parts, but the land was becoming increasingly full of strangers as the war stilled and trade resumed. Whip marks, but her body looked strong. Perhaps before she had been made a dancer or pleasure slave, because she was too pretty not to have been one of the two, she had been a farm slave. _'Or a soldier'_ his mind whispered. But he dismissed the thought for now. It would have to have been a long time ago; she was too sleek and slender to be one now. And she had clearly not been strong enough to ward off whoever beat her like this. He crained his head to see her face. A piece of hair was attached to the blood on her lip, obscuring his gaze. Gently, he pulled the piece away. Her eyes opened and his heart caught at the beauty of their color and depth. She looked at him disorientedly.

"What is your name, girl?" He asked in a hard voice, with a hint of warmth underneath the gruffness, drawing himself back up to his full height.

The memory of the vision flashed before her eyes '_lie with as much truth as you can. Use facts but not the whole truth and you will be safer'_, so she answered weakly,

"Minako."


	2. In the Lion's Den

I in no way own Sailor Moon, just the plot and an occasional OC.

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Built on Shifting Ground

Chapter Two: In the Lion's Den

"Minako. Where are you from girl? And who owned you?" The man asked cooly.

"I don't remember where I was from originally. I have been serving others for as long as I can remember. In a lord's house, in the mountains of Tandid. But it was not long ago that these men took me as payment for debts from this war, since they worked as mercenaries for my lord. I do not know who they were beyond that." She answered submissively, picking the region of the earth she had studied in the event of capture.

"Well then what was the family name of your old master? And did you know where they were taking you?"

"I never knew my lord's family name. Tandid does not allow slaves to use the name of the family they serve - just the position of the person. Like High Master or lady third wife." The man sighed to himself, of course Tandid had to have that ridiculous rule saying names give power, so underlings may not know them.

"And where were these men were taking you?"

"They never told me, and were careful not to talk about it where I could hear. All I heard was the number four. I'm not familiar with this area, so that is all I can tell you. Please, don't be angry with me, my new master. Please, I am obedient."

He winced internally at the implication that he would beat a wounded prisoner, and a woman at that. Then again, looking at her marked skin, he understood why. Yet another reason he served Endymion, a respect for human life. He crouched back down, balancing with feline grace.

"I won't hurt you. We are not like those men. I work for the house of Verdre. We do not condone senseless violence."

Minako smiled slightly at the man while he stood. That remained to be seen. They were less than friendly to strangers and the camp was well armed. This scouting mission of hers had taught her that much. But this might be the best chance of all to see if Earth, and especially this new ruling family, Verdre, had its eyes set on peace and progress or on conquest.

"Who are you, then, my new master? And what is this place?" She asked, looking anxious. He pondered her for a moment, face unreadable.

"I am called Kunzite, the King of the Middle Eastern Division, and General of High King Endymion's armies. What I am not, is your new master. My King has forbidden slavery in his lands. And you are outside of my kingdom's capital, Thhelba Sakhr, the golden rock. Also known, in the old days, as four cities."

She looked up at him hoping to look awe-struck, and scrambled to her knees to bow to him, biting back the pain. He reached for her arm to pull her up, objecting to an injured person trying to bow, and got a shock. The jolt shook him to his core. That sort of shock implied magic. _What was this girl?_ He gripped her arm tighter without thinking. His thoughts were interrupted when Minako shrieked. He looked down at his hand which was covered in blood where a wound had reopened under the pressure from his grip. Instantly, he healed her, letting the silver magic flow into her flesh and seal the wound. Minako stared at him, gaping at the spot on her arm where his hand was, which was suddenly as perfect as if she'd seen a healer about it. No one, to her knowledge, except those trained on the moon could do that. For a moment, Kunzite's eyes showed horror and then, nothing. He pulled himself up straighter.

"A healer will attend to you. Then you will be fed and given a place to sleep. We do not mistreat our prisoners, as I have told you. But we will speak again, Minako of Tandid. Be assured of it." He said walking to the front of the tent, not looking at her, and pulled open the tent for two guards to collect her with his good hand. She looked back over her shoulder before the tent closed. She watched him wipe her blood off his hand.

She let herself be taken to a nearby tent, green in color, where the others were blue and white. Inside, a woman sat reading a book, nibbling a date distractedly. Her long brown hair was braided back in a single long plait, and she wore deep blue robes that suited her bronzed skin. She was beautiful, with high cheek bones and a full mouth, but struck Minako as odd for some reason. She jumped to her feet when she noticed the intruders in what was clearly her domain. Huffing, she directed the men to lay the girl down on the second bed and to fetch food and water. She mumbled to herself about knocking and tents before she turned great gray eyes to Minako and spoke with warmth in a voice that lilted.

"Hello there my poor creature. No worries, we'll have you perfect by morning and just as pretty as ever. No scars." She smiled, pointing to her own back. "I've treated worse lash marks!" she laughed merrily to herself and bustled about humming and filling a large glass bowl with various colored liquids from a wall of decanters. A cool, clean smell filled the room. Like what hung around Ami on the days she trained with the healers. It was soothing in its familiarity. The healer picked up the bowl and set it down on the table beside the bed, pulling up a stool. She gently pulled back the clothing on her torso and coated Minako's skin in the dark green liquid, massaging it into the skin. It felt like ice being poured into her veins and Minako pulled back from the woman.

"Don't worry, darling. It is just a powerful numbing agent. Otherwise this would burn mercilessly all night." She resumed tapped her foot, humming the same bubbly little tune. Minako began to feel in the touch of the healer the unmistakable comfort of magic. She looked at the woman, eyes narrowed.

"Yes, dear. I'm using magic on you. I know you can sense it. But, then, we are both not what we appear to be." The woman mused.

"I don't understand you." Minako replied carefully.

"Truly, Venusian, such a front. Now stay put," She said, pushing Minako back down as she prepared to flee. " Calm down now. You can't have a scent like yours and not be a Venusian. And since you have it, you must be a Venusian. Simple. So of course I'm not surprised that you know what magic feels like, although I cannot sense any in you. Must have suppressed itself as a defense mechanism. I've seen that a few times. Well, don't worry about me. I won't be hurting you and I won't be telling anyone who could."

"Why should I trust you?" Minako countered.

"Didn't I say we're both not what we appear to be?" She paused, looking into Minako's eyes which widened a fraction, but whose face showed no other sign of surprise, "Oh, come on girl. You know as well as I do that true healers are only trained on the moon. You know this, so guess, what kind of magic does this feel like?"

She returned to ministering to a wound on Minako's temple, who waited, trying to confirm her suspicions. And then the caress of magic washed over her, as familiar as her mother's hand.

"Lunarian! You are a Lunarian." The woman smiled.

"And you are not just some Venusian if you can recognize that easily that I was not simply an Earthling trained on the moon but was an actual Lunarian. But an average Venusian would never have enough contact with people from another planet to know one kind of magic from any other. No, only Royalty engage regularly. You're a long way from home, little princess." Minako's breath caught in her throat at how easily she had slipped. She moved to recover the error.

"By that extension of the argument, since you who can recognize more than one type of magic, you must be royalty, but you are not." Minako challenge boldly.

"Very good extension, but wrong. Two flaws in your response. One, I did not know you by your magic, since I cannot sense it, but by your scent. And two, you just told me I was not royalty. Which means you must know who is, and what they look like. No normal Venusian would know that. Which confirms to me that you must be the Sailor Venus, the only Venusian who dwells with the Lunarian royal family. But good try." Minako deflated, realizing she had no choice in her weakened state but to trust this woman who was also so far from home. After a few moments, she perked up again.

"May I ask, how old are you? " The woman's eyes sparkled.

"190 or so, my love" Replied the flawlessly beautiful woman.

"Of course." Minako muttered, the initial oddness she had sensed explained: an old woman's mannerisms in a twenty-year-old's body. Of course. But something still tugged at her, and not having anything better to do, she pressed the issue.

"You don't have the looks of a Lunarian," Minako probed, thinking of her half Lunarian, half Venusian Princess whose blond hair set her apart from the rest of her people. "You have the eyes, but otherwise..."

"Father - a trader. I think. From god knows where. Gave me his looks, enough to fit in here in the deserts of Earth. A gift, the only one, from the father I never met." She said pleasantly.

"So if you were raised on the moon, and learned you craft there, how did you come to practice for an Earthling militia?"

"A fair question. I fell in love. Quite a while ago now, long before the civil wars, when Earth was at peace. A man from the house of Estell came with a diplomatic party to the moon, on behalf of my King's father, Theseus. I was attending her high majesty then, yes Queen Serenity. I was still so young, only 160 then. Still so inexperienced, and then this man of unparalleled character and beauty enters my life. So, naturally, I fell for him. Any girl would have. And he fell for me too. Goddess knows why, perhaps it is the Earthlings say 'Opposites attract'. In any case, I gave up everything to join him here and be his wife. In a few years, I had a child. But the climate on Earth was growing tense even then. It all went wrong when the Queen died and he took on the other wives. Yes, before my child was of age, all the seeds of a revolution were planted. The king had five sons, with four different mothers, the living three all positioning to get their sons on the throne. And so war came, naturally, two years ago. Yes, when earth cut contact with the other planet's. And I'm sure you're interested princess, so don't give me that innocent expression. Why else would you be sulking about in disguise. Am I right?" Minako chewed at her lower lip, but said nothing.

"Thought so. As I was saying, since it is no secret down here, it all changed two years ago when the old king died and, let's just say, the heir became...unclear. It instantly set off civil war. The brothers pitted against one another, and the youngest was only 8! His mother, that woman, _Goddess,_ what a woman! Not worthy to share the same title as the first queen, may her memory always live on always. And the others no better. I can only say, the king was not thinking straight. Anyways, his subjects and advisers and lords quickly took sides. My husband among them. Myself too."

"Who did you pick?" Minako asked, entranced.

"_I _picked the Verdre standard."she took a deep breath, "My husband chose Metali."

Minako saw, for the first time, sorrow cloud the gray eyes.

"Why?" Minako asked before she could stop herself. She winced as the woman stiffened.

"Because he was seduced by that **creature**, that poor excuse for a woman. Fool! So taken in that he cannot see who would be the best king. Anyone with a mind should know that our boy is every inch the king. Brilliant, devoted to his people, powerful, kind but not afraid of the sword. _Worthy_. Endymion of Verdre is the rightful king." He voice was low now with the intensity of tested, challenged belief, "And I loved my husband once. And I could forgive him for betraying me with he. But not the betrayal of our prince."

They sat quiet for a moment. Then the woman stood calmly, with a smile.

"Well, you're all done. " Minako looked down to notice that the healer had finished her work without the patient even noticing. A true healer. the woman reached for another decanter and poured the blue stuff into a low glass. "Here, now take this. You'll sleep better." Minako complied without question, her doubts about this woman assuaged by the story and sincerity. As sleep started to soften her grasp on the waking world, a final question occurred to her. Drowsily, she asked,

"What about your child, what happened to your child?"

"They survived to adulthood, and choose sides in this world, just like the rest of us."

"Mhm, but which side?" Her eyelids were heavy and the image of the woman slipped in and out before her.

"That, little girl, and this is the only area of my life this is true of, is a private matter,"

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Reviews are very welcome!


	3. A Worthy Opponent

I in no way own Sailor Moon, just the plot and an occasional OC.

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Built on Shifting Ground

Chapter Three: A Worthy Opponent

The light appeared like long streaks of lightening along the small tears and seams in the fabric of the tent above her. She went to move and groaned as the blood rushed, making her head throb and disorienting her.

"Easy Now," The now familiar voice of the Healer called out, "Your cuts may not show it, but you lost a lot of blood yesterday. So calm down and sit still while I get you something to eat and clothing to wear."

She left the tent and returned a few moments later, smiling brightly.

"Almost picked up orange robes for you, but thought it a bit too obvious. I got you these instead." She said as she held up the beautiful butter yellow robe and red sash for Minako's inspection. "They should look great against your skin."

After Minako nodded, gratefully, the Healer laid the garment on the bed and helped Minako stand and change.

"Now, I was going to get you some food too," The healer finished trying the red bow around her waist. " but a guard informed me that General Kunzite has ordered that you have your meals with him when he is in. Breath girl. I don't think he knows who you are, Princess, but his insight is good. And to issue this kind of order, he must have sensed something. So, do be careful, dear. Shall we?" Minako nodded and allowed herself to be back to a large blue tent on the North side of the camp. She noted the silver markings painted on the tent and the guards standing outside it. Two kinds of protection, swords and magic. She put herself on guard, as the Healer had cautioned. The guards parted immediately upon seeing the Healer and pulled back the tent for them to enter.

Kunzite looked up from where he was seated behind a desk and put down his papers, rising to meet the ladies. The Healer inclined her head towards the general. He returned the gesture, and the woman left silently.

His eyes meet Minako's and, for a few moments, her was quiet. When he did speak, his tone was gentle.

"Nadia did an excellent job. You look perfect. Would you please have a seat?" He asked, his right hand gesturing toward the cushions around a low, red-stained wood table.

Minako couldn't help but smile. As Aphrodite's heir, all men were drawn to her. Comments like that "You look perfect" were always unconsciously made. Most men would fluster at what they had said and barely speak in her presence again. But not this one. He boldly held her eyes and retained all of his impeccable grace. She took a seat, as offered, acknowledging the man's charms.

"Jana!" He called as he sat opposite her, managing to look at once formal and at ease amidst the plush cushions. In walked a young woman in white, carrying two trays of food. She put them before Minako, making eye contact just briefly. Her eyes widened with fear or shock and some recognition passed before her eyes before she dropped her gaze, turned to Kunzite, made a hasty bow, and left. Minako did not look at the girl as she left, but looked at her host with serene calm, unwilling to show how this girl's reaction had affected her.

Kunzite either did not notice or was willing to play along, and offered her hot mint tea with equal ease. She accepted the tea graciously, as well as the offer of barley porridge and honeyed dates. They began to eat in a remarkably comfortable quiet. Strangely, it reminded Minako of breakfast with Ami before the morning shift, both reading over reports quietly, so comfortable with one another that constant prattle required in society gatherings could be skipped. In fact, the only source of discomfort was her self-created one at the thought of how comfortable he naturally made her . When at length he spoke, it was in a warm, silky, cultured and slightly formal voice that did not break the mood.

"I hope Nadia has made you comfortable in her tent and that you found the clothing suitable."

"Oh yes, more than, on both scores." She replied, following the pattern of speech he had set: the courtly speech she knew so well.

"Excellent. If you require anything, ask Nadia. She will see to it. I dare say it must be very difficult adjusting to a life where you are finally your own master, which is what you are in they eyes of the law. It is law here that slaves who escape their masters will be give asylum by the state in return for information leading to their capture for violating the prohibition on slavery or if they're mater is suspected of a crime. Article 8, section 6, the Verdre Articles of Confederation."

"That is very generous move on your prince's part." She answered cautiously, she said thinking of how painfully little she knew about how the civil war which was going or how to address people in light of it. Nadia had said Endymion was the rightful king, but had he taken that title yet or was he still hoping to claim it. She could only hope that it would give credibility to her story of being a slave who had, up till now, barely engaged with those beyond her household of wealthy nobles.

"Yes. He is a generous man. And a wise one. Receiving slaves and offering them asylum gets us a good deal of information about the activities of nobles, which is always useful in maintaining peace. Better to know before it happens if a wealthy man is amassing an army. And it gives us a reason to arrest any of them who is a threat for breaking the ban on slavery. But besides the political benefits, it prevents the stealing of children to be sold as slaves. And, as with the rest of High King Endymion's policies, it should help the majority of people rather than the nobles or even our government." Minako smiled gratefully at his tact in not correcting her.

"Thank you, High King Endymion. I will remember. The few weeks while the caravan had me, they used all these different names. In my prior life, I had no further knowledge of the reasons for the civil war...well, in any case, I will remember this time."

"Not at all. The last two years have been so tumultuous, I can understand the confusion. When Marion controlled the area, I'm sure it was King-Savior Marion and the Bastard Pretender-to-the-Throne Endymion. Or when Fabian controlled it, Anointed-Good King Fabian and the Cruel Warlord Endymion the Fiendish." He said completely calmly, but she caught the sparkle in his eyes and laughed. "So I can understand not knowing what to call anyone at this point."

"Is it finally over now? Do you think this peace will hold here, and that this will be the last time we learn a new King's name?"

"After the formal defeat and signed abdication of one, and another's death in battle, leaving all but one prince at large, and only the one with the weakest claim--I should think so."

Minako found herself developing a bit of a professional crush on this man. The idea of anyone who could rival her, at anything, held a certain attraction for her. No one but the senshi or royal families ever rivaled or surpassed her. And this man was a born courtier, something she prided herself on. It was that much more attractive that he rivaled her in an area of particular pride. She had to admire how, in a single statement, he could not only avoid a binding promise, but also brag while sounding as though simply providing the full facts. Good technique, always a turn on. If that translated into other areas...Minako scolded herself, she never thought this way about an enemy. Or any men, as a matter of fact, not serously. That had always been the problem. An alarm went off in the back of her head, but she pushed it aside for now.

"Very impressive." She replied in a silken tone, "What about the last prince - I'm so out of touch I don't even know which one is still free - what has happened with him?"

"Really, do you not know? Did you hear no mention of it in the caravan?"

"Not that I recall." She answered without pause.

"Interesting. Caravans of raiders like that tend to be vultures for our enemies, sent into our lands to pick off a few soldiers at a time and thin out our numbers. It seems surprising that you would hear no mention of their purpose or the prince they worked for in the, what, the three weeks from Tandid to here."

"Perhaps it was said, but my priorities were not finding out who they worked for, only how to get away from them." She lied smoothly. He nodded, but said nothing, waiting her out. A tactic she herself used in interrogations, since she was now sure that was what this meeting was. You used silence as a tool to get people to awkwardly babble, needing to fill the silence, in hopes that they talked themselves into a confession or at least giving something away unknowingly. She debated which counter-tactic to use: to pretend she had fallen for it and babble away some nonsense about their cruelty until he gave up, or to eat more dates.

He watched, internally slightly agitated, as she picked up a date and slowly sipped her tea.

"It must have been very difficult for you, would you tell me about what it was like for you in the caravan?" He asked. Changing tactics, she noted, the caring protector, here to defend your honor move. She did not use this one, but it only worked on women when used by men. Well, almost only. Sailor Uranus used it quite successfully too.

"Yes," She said simply, channeling her one of her worst memories: when her mother had told her that a young soldier, very much in love with Sailor Venus, had killed himself because she had walked past him for two years without noticing or acknowledging him. Hardly unusual in a palace guard numbering 10,000, but his death had stuck a cord in Minako. Ever since, she had a smile or kind word for everyone. "It was hard."

She could feel his eyes on her, trying to read her. So she dwelled in the pain of the experience, of the memory of how her own cavalier behavior had killed someone. Finally, he relented.

"You can feel free to talk to me about it, if you ever want to. I won't be in for lunch, so Nadia will see to your meal. But I shall see you for dinner. Good day, Minako of Tandid." He said standing, offering an arm to help her up.

She took it. Insantly she felt that jolt of electricity, the same one from last night. Their eyes meet out of reflex. He eyed her warily but Minako could also see attraction in the depths and the dilation of the pupils, the same signs she knew he saw in her. She wondered what other techniques he might use to get information out of her if he read the signs of her arousal correctly. Not good. She broke eye contact and he let go of her arm, letting her walk to the tent opening and to the guard who would escort her back to Nadia.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jana entering the tent she had just left. A sudden, intense pang of jealousy ran through her at the servant's intimacy with the General, her ability to enter his tent unbidden. She wondered if that was why the girl had stared at Minako like that, because she had been caught assessing a rival for the man's affections. She had to admit, the girl was beautiful. And Minako, as any child of Venus should, knew how the Master and Servant game worked.

She found the idea..._throughly_ displeased her.

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Thank you to sailorashes for the kind words of encouragement. (You're right. I am a total senshi/shitennou groupie. And I have every intention of continuing this story :) )


	4. Meddler

I do not own Sailor Moon. Just the plot and occasional OC.

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Built on Shifting Ground

Chapter 4: Meddler

Sure enough, Nadia was waiting for her when the guards returned her to the healer's tent.

"How did it go?" Nadia asked anxiously after the guards left, physically steering Minako back to her bed and depositing her there.

"Alright, I suppose. He is bound to be suspicious of anyone found near the bodies of his men. I don't think he realizes what I am." Nadia nodded, walked to the shelved of bottle, and began fixing what Minako could only guess was her next does of medicine.

"I'm guessing Jana served you both breakfast?" Minako blinked.

"Yes, why?" Nadia lifted her brows at the malice in Minako's voice and sighed.

"Because he does that now and then with prisoners. That girl has the sight. She can see thing, auras mostly, people's past sometimes, even futures occasionally. He brings her in to gauge his prisoners." Minako tried to swallow down the terror she felt rising in her. Nadia turned to face her, and looked at her sharply.

"Did she say anything to him while you were there?"

"No! no. She just looked at me. She looked at me like, I don't know, like she feared me, then fled the room. She was returning to the tent when I left but I thought...well, never mind what I thought." Minako murmured, ashamed that she had made such a miscalculation.

'Well that you're still alive now, that he has not come in and slit your throat, that is the first good sign. And that no extra guards have been posted is good too. If she had given him a sigh, said something, you would have been killed on the stop or soon after. I've seen it happen. But, then again, they deserved it. Trust me, they did." Minako nodded. She knew death was not always undeserved, but knew in this case hers might not be undeserved either. "But I do wonder what Jana saw that would cause her to be that frightened and yet for to him to let you keep breathing. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Minako countered tensely. Nadia looked at her.

"Unless, whatever it was, it was so unbelievable that he needed proof. Kunzite is a rational man, his mind operates that way."

"What do I do?" Minako asked aloud, though not necessarily to Nadia, who answered all the same, handing her her medicine.

"Tell him everything. Soon, before he has a chance to brand you a liar because you are an enemy and not just because you were scared. Now drink."

"He never even asked me if I killed those men; he never even mentioned their deaths." She stated sadly. "He never saw me as capable of that. He thought I knew something, and was not saying it. Protecting killers, perhaps. Of possibly being a spy, yes. Of being something other than what I claimed to be, yes, he absolutely thought me capable of that. But he still never thought...he still thought better of me than to believe I could be the one that killed his men."

"Only because it would not be rational to think a woman alone, without magic (in as far as we all can see for now), could kill eight men. Believe me, if he had any idea that such a thing was possible, he would have thought of you as a possible killer too. But, here, women are not soldiers. And here is all he knows." Nadia said, brushing off Minako's melancholy as a bit of the girl still lingering about the warrior. Still wanting to be sweet and innocent, and loathing the idea of telling someone who thought they were still innocent the ugly truth. Well, that is what she thought until Minako spoke.

"Then why does it still hurt so much, to feel that he will hate me for this?" Minako asked softly, before finally swallowing the bitter liquid. Nadia looked at her hard. Then a slow smile started to spread across her face.

"I do believe...yes, I do believe it is because you like him, girl. Respect him, admire him, even understand him perhaps. Well, this is a first." She laughed at Minako's confusion. "Most times, when he meets a woman, they love him till he speaks and his brisk, business-like nature does not mesh well with the romantic prince charming image they make up in their heads to match his 'god-like-physique' and 'the unrivaled handsomeness of his face', Goddess!" She laughed again, "the way young women's minds work. No, to have someone like him for who he is, cool courteous professionalism and all, that is, to say the _least_, quite unusual."

Minako made a very unladylike face, mouth hanging slightly open, brows furrowed, as though almost about to speak but unsure of what to say. But she wasn't thinking about the picture she made. All she could think of was this: was it true? Did she really like him? This was not at all like the other men who had proposed themselves as potential lovers. With them, they offered he looks and sweet words, which she tried to desire since their personalities fell so short of her hopes for a lover. Shallow. All she could ever see in them was an infernally shallow appreciation of beauty. Nothing remarkable in them, nothing to rival her own gifts. It was why she had never taken a lover, despite the pressure to.

She had to admit, with Kunzite, looks were at the back of her mind, not the forefront. Sure, she knew he was gorgeous, but she did not find herself focusing on that when they were together. There were more powerful draws. For one, his magnificent skill as a general, that delicious combination: part the seriousness of a solider, part the purposeful expertise of an interrogator, part the tact and grace of a courtier. For another, an electric, sensual, passionate current that underlay their every interaction and touch. Then there was the memory of the alarm that went off every time she saw him differently than any man that had come before. If it was true, she would be obligated to him. She needed more proof. Perhaps there was-

"Have you figured it out yet, girl? Or no?" Nadia asked in an amused voice from the pillows across from the pallet bed Minako laid in, leaning on once arm, smiling at her lazily. Minako bristled at the voice interrupting her musing, but dropped the temper. This woman only offered kindness.

"I think you may have a point." Minako said slowly. Nadia squealed in delight, the first gesture that matched her youthful appearance. Minako did not smile back, "But he will hate he when he finds out I lied."

"Not if you tell him why, Minako. He understands what it means to have a job to do. But you have to tell him why. The _**whole**_ reason why. Do you understand me, Princess?"

Minako stiffened. "What do you really know about why I'm here? And how do you know it?" Nadia looked at her patiently.

"I know that the princesses of the planets serve the Ruler of the SMA, which is currently held by the Lunarian Queen. Thus, you work for her and must be here on her business. I do not presume to know exactly why you're doing here. But I know that it must have been in the service of Queen Serenity. And she would never have sent you here on anything blameworthy. So, Kunzite will understand." Minako hesitated, and Nadia frowned. "She did authorize this mission, didn't she?"

"Not...in detail. She knew I was trying to assess the risk Earth might present to her, but I did not tell her how. But she trusted my judgement." Minako defended herself. "And I will not betray my Queen's trust to save my skin. I would rather die."

"And she would rather you lived!" Nadia exclaimed in exasperation. "I knew your Queen well, served her. She would not have allowed you to come here if she had thought you, and any course of action you might take, would be a serious risk to peace or yourself. This incident was an accident, born of bad timing. Explain yourself fully, and you can save your own reputation and the reputation of your queen. Besides, it is high time the earth and the rest of the galaxy started talking again."

Minako wished to the Goddess for guidance. She felt so cornered. Having no other option, she prayed for a good result, and resolved to take this chance.

Her opportunity came at dinner. Kunzite summoned her, as promised, to eat dinner with him. When the guard pulled open the tent, Minako was impressed by the simple elegance of his tent set up for a candlelight dinner. The red and orange cushions glowed in the light, as did the gold inlay of roses and leaves on the white bowls set on the table.

He stood, again at his desk, when she entered. In the back of her mind, a voice whispered '_caution_'. The voice that spoke to her in meditation. The one who had cautioned her when she first got here. The Goddess' voice. She smiled at Kunzite, completely natural. He responded in like, showing her where to sit with a simple arch of his hand, which she took. They were both quiet as two women laid out dinner for them and left. He spoke first.

"I hope Nadia has helped you occupy your day pleasantly?"

"Yes. We chatted, and I rested a bit. I find myself quite weak still."

"To be expected. But you don't need me to tell you that," He tilted his head to catch her eyes which had been on her meal, and smiled again. "Do you?"

"No." She said, almost blushing at his attention but blocking the emotions from her mind as she spoke. "Nadia told me as much."

"Of course." Silence lingered, as did his calm grey eyes. "Nadia has quite a gift, does she not? Ever seen an energy healer before? In your former master's house perhaps?"

"Not that I recall." She responded after a pause. "I was not privy to the physical conditions or ailments of my masters."

"More of a farm-maid then?"

"Yes, and no. Not exactly a farm-maid, but like one I did physical labor, to be sure."

"Interesting. You have such a courtly manner, dialect, and vocabulary for a physical laborer, and a slave at that. Where did you acquire such skills?"

"I worked in the house also, as a ladies' maid."

"And yet as a ladies' maid, you never saw the healers that came and went? Despite knowing every detail of your mistresses' lives, as all ladies' maids do?"

"Not when healers came. I was not kept in the room for such things. Slaves are not supposed to know their masters' weaknesses."

"Ah." He said, looking at her mildly, a slight smile on his lips. "I see."

Minako schooled her emotions, him allowing her to dig herself in deeper with lies. She needed to just tell him the truth. She ate more of her dinner as he watched her keenly, leaning back from the table, his hand folded under his chin.

"How is it, morning star?" Minako choked on her food, and looked up at him, his eyes dropped their laughing glow. They shone like metal shards.

"Better on Venus." She replied, voice smooth and calm, wishing to implicate no one but herself.

His sword was at her throat. She had known it was coming but was so completely unarmed that she merely sat still and waited.

"Why don't you retaliate, pretty _**Spy**_? Show those powers you've been so carefully hiding. I know they're there." He taunted her.

"Is that was that little girl, Jana, told you? That I am a Venusian, with a magic I chose not to use." She laughed, a hard high laugh, like an angry wicked storybook Goddess, "Well, she got it half right. I am a Venusian. But believe me, Terrian, I would gladly defend myself if I could."

"Oh really, then how did eight of my men end up dead in the desert while another twenty had their supplies exhausted on a quest after nothing, based on imaginary tracks? What happened to the woman who could do all this? Where is the warrior they hired?"

Minako balked at that.

"_They_ hired? What do you mean _**They**_ hired? Who do you think could possibly pay **me **to do their bidding?"

"Being haughty and denying it will get you no where. I know you for a liar. I will let my king interrogate you personally before sending you back to Venus in four pieces, a warning to those who would interfere in our politics."

"General, I do not interfere. I observe. The earth has been cut off from the rest of the solar system for almost two years. We outside of your planet have had no idea why communications ceased or what is going on down here. That is a major security issue. I am merely here as a scout to report back the conditions on the planet."

"Ah, little spy. Report back to who. Yes, as I thought. If this had been about information for the galaxy, they'd have sent a diplomat. And they would have been returned to them with our blessing. Instead, a warrior is sent, and eight of my men are dead and another twenty weakened. That sounds like offense not defense. Like war, not protection."

"Their deaths are my fault, and mine alone. A flaw in the execution of a peaceful mission on behalf of the rest of the galaxy."

"Why should I believe you? No, it is eminently more likely that you were hired by the Metalis. Hired to thin out my troops before their troops move to attack the city. You expect me to believe that feigned ignorance about our internal wars. You were far too concerned with finding out about our progress in the war and our future plans. What, so you could take that back to you master too? You were far too perfect in your choice of questions, Venusian. It gave you away."

"This is ridiculous!" Minako hissed. "The outer galaxy has had no contact with the Earth in two years! How could I be hired by an Earthling if we cannot communicate?!"

He paused for a split second. Zoicite was working tirelessly on getting a transmitter capable of intergalactic communication up and running. No others were known to exist.

"Then why lie about everything, little girl? And who do you work for? The innocent have nothing to hide." She laughed at him, incredulous.

"We none of us that hold a sword are innocent, though I am of the particular crime you accuse me of. I still have parts I would not share."

Kunzite crouched down to eye-level with her and stared hard into her gold and blue eyes, blade not moving.

"Why. did. you. lie. about. this?" He asked like ice, each word slow, sharp, deliberate.

She stared back.

"Time." His eyes narrowed at her, but she kept talking, "To buy time. In a day, my comrades and my Queen will come for me. And you shall see that this was a mission of interplanetary concern not malice or the work of a rival regime, if they are received well. And if I am found unharmed. You should tell your prince to be there. It will be a momentous day. Trust me."

He stood quickly and snapped his fingers. Two guards approached.

"Keep her here. She is not to leave or have any visitors. Be on guard. She is not what she seems." He walked away briskly, leaving the two guards eyeing her harshly.

"Oh and General, if you were planning on mustering more troops to fight my comrades and Queen, don't bother. They will be no match for my friends." She called out to his retreating back. He responded over his shoulder as he walked.

"Not troops, pretty thing. _**My**_ friends. And they will be ready. And more than a match."

Venus watched him leave, his words ringing in her ears. There was something true in his words, she could feel it. Could these people he would summon really be a threat? These friends he spoke of?

Unto Selene, she turned her prayers.

* * *

Thank you to everyone who reviewed. It helps me remember to work on this story and not pick up one of the others. Keep it up, and I'll try to update frequently. It also helps me know where to change the upcoming chapter if you tell me what you liked. That's all. I'll be posting information about update on my profile page from now on. Thanks again!

3 Goldnheart


	5. You Would Like Me to Do What?

in no way own Sailor Moon, just the plot and an occasional OC.

* * *

Built on Shifting Ground

Chapter Five: You Would Like Me to Do _What?_

He returned near dawn, barely a hint in his appearance suggesting a long night, except a trace of agitation in his eyes. But it had been a long night, Minako could vouch for that.

He barely spared a glance for her, as he dismissed the guards, put down a package, and filled a basin with water. He must have notice, though, because he said,

"what, still awake?"

He turned to look at her, who was still sitting stiffly on the cushion where she'd sat when he left, eyeing him angrily, "You'd best sleep. I won't have people saying I mistreated you. For you know very well I have not."

"I could hardly sleep wondering if you were going to come kill me in the night." He laughed honestly at that, a warm, low chuckle.

"Now then! Really, spy, if I had wanted to kill you- I would have when I had my sword at your throat." She opened her mouth but he smoothly cut her off, "Now you will sleep - here - because I am not fool enough to let you out of my sight long enough to meet up with whoever hired you. And my guards need a rest, especially if we will have _guests_ tomorrow."

He pulled back the curtain next to the basin of water he'd just poured, revealing a bed. He might have been fairly sure she was employed by a planetary power to spy on them, but he still did not want to a) risk that she had contacts nearby, or b) let her know she was off the hook so soon.

"But what about you, where will you sleep?" she asked, unnerved.

"There, with you. You will not be not leaving my side. I'll only sleep if I know you're not going anywhere. This is the best way, I should think. " He said, pulling a glowing circular object out of his jacket pocket.

"Energy-cuffs...you can't be serious." She squeaked, her voice entirely too high and young for her liking.

He smiled at her, the slight movement of his lower lip that she now recognized as one, unbuttoning his jacket with a soldier's briskness. He slid it off and commenced with rinsing down his torso as way of an answer.

Poor Minako currently wavered between horror and extreme attraction as she watched the water bead off his skin and hair, glistening, outlining every muscle and angle of his form and face. 'You stop that, Minako!' She warned herself, 'Be strong! Just because he's a teensy bit attractive. Oh Goddess why do muscles have to flex when you move? Is that really necessary?'

Kunzite felt her emotions easily, and congratulated himself on giving her a bit of the discomfort she had given him; Jadeite always did say his sense of humor manifested itself in a sadistic delight in fair-play. Indeed, the very air where she stood seemed to vibrate with her emotional stress. It must have been quite something, since he had never been able to read another woman so easily. Only his soul-brothers were that transparent; telepathy did that .

He looked over at her out of the corner of his eye, to confirm what he felt, and noticed the flush on her skin, not just fear then, but...surely not.

"What?" He teased, drying himself with a cloth, not bothering to look at her again, "Don't tell me the Venusian is afraid to lay with a man."

He felt it immediately: the air in the room change, and go cold. He looked back and saw her, unnaturally pale where a blush had stood. The pallor of her skin and hair made her eyes stand out, huge and dark and blue and frightened.

'What is this?' Kunzite thought to himself astonished, as control of the situation slipped out of his grasp, 'If I did not know better, I'd have said this was maiden's fear. Why else go from such clear desire to terror? But a Venusian girl, of her age, a virgin? Unlikely.'

His thoughts were cut short as he watched her start to back away from him slowly, like a cornered feline. He lunged after her just as she turned to run. Grabbing at her limbs, he tried to still her frantic kicking and biting.

With her body flush against him, one arm holding her head sideways against his chest to stop the biting, the other holding her arms behind her back, and his feet holding hers to the ground , Kunzite finally felt safe enough to talk.

"You don't need to worry. I would never touch a woman against her will." The irony of his statement in light of how they were standing was not lost on him. "You will just sleep beside me, nothing more. You have my word."

Minako could not say why his promise was enough to make her body go lax and to calm her fears. But it was. She knew she had no reason to trust him, but something in her did, intrinsically, universally.

He felt her muscles relax, and he slightly relaxed his grip too, testing her response. She remained close, shifting lightly. He couldn't help noticing the wonderful soft warm heat of her body move against his, and the sweet smell of her skin. His body stirred and he put her from him, the instintationious reaction to her flesh unfamiluar. Business was business, pleasure was pleasure. It was why he interrogated, not Nephrite, who was far too fond of a woman's curves. It alarmed him that his body reacted without more cause then proximity to the girl. With cold formality, he gestured to the bundle he had brought in.

"Nadia gave me a robe for you to sleep in - there. You can change behind the curtain while I wait. Or outside and you can wash while I get in bed. If you swear not to try and run but to get in bed straight after." He added, knowing the fight had gone out of her.

"I swear." She breathed, still dazed from being so close to him, reaching for the black silk and clutching it in front of her.

"Very well." He responded awkwardly, and climbed into bed in his loose cotton trousers, closing the curtain behind him.

He could hear the shuffle of fabrics and the sound of water before the pulled back the curtain, melodious and abnormally loud in the silence. When the heavy fabric gave way to light, he was again struck with the beauty of her. In the light of the single candle, her gold hair glowed, her skin shone pale and sumptuous against the black, her curved figure fought the straight silk shift, and her eyes were bright and clear although nervous. Kunzite looked at the top of the tent intently.

"You could blow out the candle." He suggested.

She looked at him for a moment, willing herself to be calm despite the desire she had felt at his touch, this, the first man she would spend the night with. As chaste as siblings. It felt unnatural, to lie with him like that; she knew desire did not tolerate avoidance. It finds a way, sooner or later. But she would do her damnedest to ensure it would not be tonight, not when her sisters would arrive tomorrow and see right through her. Just as her Venusian blood had screamed 'he desires you!' when he pushed her away. No, not tonight.

So, she blew out the candle lay down as far from him as she could get instead of straddling him, as she was seriously considering doing.

The bed, however, was small for two, so she still found herself side by side with him, falling slightly off the bed in her attempt to not touch him. She felt the magic bond shackle them together.

"Do you really have to do this?" Minako asked, exasperated by the whole experience.

"You'd do the same." Kunzite noted dryly. She huffed but did not disagree. And he did not rub it in.

They lay there for some time. Quite some time, both uncomfortably awake.

"Oh come on General!" Minako finally said when she could not stand another moment.

"Come on what-little spy?" He asked, still mocking her slightly since he better by now.

"Oh! I am _**not**_ a spy for some rival of your prince. And what I mean is we have to sleep. Meeting dignitaries when exhausted does not go over well."

"Then go to sleep." She boiled at his easy logic.

"Why don't _**you**_ sleep?!"

"I can't. I'm not used to having another person awake next to me plotting. It is distracting."

"Oh, and I am?" He did not reply.

"Hey! I am not plotting, for your information. And if you mean to imply that I have people in my bed all the time, you're dead wrong. You people and your perceptions of Venusians! We do not just take anyone to bed. It is only an expression of love. And you think..." She ranted. "Well, you're wrong. No man has had that privilege."

Kunzite was quiet for a few moments.

"So, then, you've never been in love, by that logic," He reasoned quickly, not sure why it pleased him. He heard her swallow. "You haven't. Interesting."

"Why interesting?" She asked tartly, surprised that he brought out this side of her which she kept so well hidden as Venus.

"Just because my mother used to tell me stories about the other planets as a child. She said that Venusians always mate for life or longer, a soul or life bond, before they reach 18 years. And that they have many other lesser lovers before that as they try to find the one. It seems unusual that you would have none, you look to be at least 18, 19 maybe?"

Minako was shaken, shaken to her core, by his accurate and unknowingly cutting assessment of her culture. He hadn't been making the usual, ignorant assumptions about her people. Instead, he knew enough about her culture to know the source of her people's fear, not to mention her own; that something as terribly wrong with her, malformed, cursed, unfit to rule. Never had a Queen's love-life been less representative of her people's social norms and values. It broke her heart to hear the whispers, sense her people's anxieties, know what horrible acts those whispers could inspire, and to live with the consequences every day.

Kunzite uneasily noted the deep breaths she was taking, and the way she trembled slightly.

"Are you alright?" He asked in a gentle whisper, turning on his side to face her, reaching out to touch her shoulder.

His genuine concern broke her calm, and to her horror, Minako could feel the tears start to stream down her cheeks. She tried to breathe deeply again to steady herself, but it came out as a sob.

Kunzite's eyes widened as he panicked slightly. Naturally, he, as he always did when faced with a challenge on the battlefield, did the first thing that came to his head. Quick reaction time was paramount. So, he pulled her to him and stroked her hair as she tried to stop her tears.

Minako was in not state to resist kindness. She took the offering of human compassion, curling into the crook of his neck as the tears slowed, and the sobs stopped.

On his part, Kunzite performed the task a bit awkwardly at first, not used to it; physical expressions of affection were foreign to him since he'd joined the army at fourteen. But as they both got over the strangeness of the situation, he fell into an easy, mindless routine of stroking hair, back, repeat. And it felt surprisingly good. He felt her breathing slow. And with her warm figure in his arms, he too gradually fell asleep.

* * *

Author's Note:

I'm so sorry about the wait, school started eating my soul again. So, it is taking me longer to edit than usual. I would LOVE someone if they wanted to beta for this piece, Seriously, intensely love. But yeah, a little fun interlude before it gets intense. Hope you liked it!


	6. There's No Fighting Fate

I don't own Sailor Moon.

* * *

Built on Shifting Ground

Chapter Six: There's No Fighting Fate

*

He awoke at six, by sheer force of habit. He knew three hours of sleep was suboptimal, but it would have to do. He needed the morning to make preparations for his prince's arrival...and for whatever 'guests' this little whirlwind would bring to his door. He went to move when a breathy moan and strong arms protested his leaving.

In the light beating through the white curtains around his bed, he saw the beautiful source of his impediment: foreign arms and legs entangled with his own. Her legs pinned his in place, one arm about his waist and the other tangled in his hair. Minako's shift had ridden up, exposing the nude expanse of her long legs.

He threw his head back, as much as her hands would allow, and sighed in frustration. At the slight movement, she moaned again, nestling closer, her hip and leg brushing an area that made him breathe in quickly and curse silently whatever god allowed this to happen.

"Venusian. Come on, wake up. Come on. Let's get up. Little spy, time to get up." He said, trying to disentangle her, which only raised more sleepy protests.

He de-powered the energy cuffs, aware that there was not need to ensure she stayed put. Instead of needing to be restrained, she would not let go! Women. He lay still, racking his brain for a solution. A quiet voice in his head whispered, "_kiss her_".

Kunzite questioned his sanity.

"_kiss her-__**kiss**__ her-__**kiss her**__! Damn it man, just kiss her already_." it chanted back at him. For minutes on end, the litany continued.

Finally, in desperation, he used his free arm to tilt up her face and brushed her lips with his.

Or that had been his intent.

But the second their lips meet, her touch consumed him. He could not for the life of him break away. She drew him to her, magnetic. _Like a knife to a magnet_, the same still voice answered, _and they will kill anything that comes between them. _But he could not stop. Her mouth opened and he caressed her tongue, wanting more access, needing to feel more of her. His hands wandered over her legs and up to her lower back and hips as her teeth caught his lower lip. His hands gripped her waist hard. She cried out softly with the tiny shocks of pain and pleasure emanating from her waist. Kunzite trailed nips down her throat. Who knows what might have happened, had a voice not called,

"General Kunzite! Sir! The scouts have sighted our King's company progressing not 20 miles from here. They sent word by transmission not two minutes ago. Requesting orders, Sir."

Without having to think, his voice, rumbling against the skin of her neck, supplied the command: "Ready the large tent and three others of this size and tell the men to prepare to share their tents for the night."

"Yes, Sir."

"Dismissed." And again, they were alone. In the quiet, the two stared at one another, torn between the urge to continue and either curling up in the darkest, deepest hole they could find or declaring war.

"I'll have Nadia come and let you bathe and change so you can be ready. Do you know when you friends will arrive?" Kunzite answered at length.

"By sundown." She answered softly, suddenly nervous when she had been so at ease; , yet still confident about her friends. They would begin to search for her, find coordinates, and plan a rescue mission. They would have started the moment her contact went dead: the day before they had found her in the desert, as the sun went down and she unknowingly entered into the Terrian transmission zone. After three days without contact, without fail, to the moment, the senshi would come for her.

As she would for them.

"By sundown." He confirmed. He sat up and she followed suit. Moving from the bed, he went to his wardrobe and grabbed a clean uniform and like magic, for maybe it was, Nadia appeared clucking about the commotion in the camp. She went to the bed and took Minako by the arm, steering her out of the tent and to the healer's tent, talking brightly all the while. But when the tent closed, she silently looked hard at Minako. After a time, she spoke,

"Thank the Goddesses child that you're alive and here with me. But what has happened to you? Your skin is so pale and your eyes...are haunted." Minako's mouth opened three times before she choked out,

"He _kissed_ me!" She looked at Nadia like a lost child. Nadia fought back her relieved laughter as the goddess of love stared at her in confusion. "He...he-he slept beside me, and comforted me when I feel apart and was a perfect gentlemen and then...then he goes and kisses me! I woke up to him kissing me!" Nadia laughed out loud at that, unable to restrain it any longer.

"Oh my girl, my dear girl. Look at you! Blushing and befuddled as a virgin!"

"Oh!" Minako threw up her hands, diving into the nearest nest of pillows, burying her face in a large aqua pillow.

Nadia's eyes widened, "Sweet Selene! You are a virgin? A Venusian princess, still a virgin!"

"Does everyone have to rub it in!?!" Minako wailed into the pillow. Nadia just laughed harder.

"Ah! So he said something about last night, did he? Gods, he usually has such finesse when talking to women, even without protocol guiding him. Well then, you've got under his skin! Good for you!" Minako huffed. "Come on now girl, you like him, so don't pretend this doesn't please you. Look how a little kiss has distracted you."

Internally, Minako had to acknowledge the point, but she kept that to herself.

"Oh alright-" Nadia quipped, "Suit yourself. Be stubborn, but it will just hit you harder when you admit it. Come on, over here--I have a bath drawn for you, and fresh robes and some rolls for after. Come on, don't sulk like a princess. Everyone will know." She teased. Grudgingly, Minako accepted the offer.

Later, clean and dressed, Minako was summoned to a large tent that had not been there in the morning. Frowning, she realized this meant it was time to meet the house of Verdre. Drawing herself up like a queen, she walked in glowing in her simple white robes, gold hair loose and floating playfully about her waist.

The king and his companions took in the regal posture and unrivaled beauty immediately. They noted it warily. This was an important woman--a woman used to command and to power. The man she knew must be Endymion stood, and the others followed his lead. He met her halfway to the temporary throne at the head of a long table. Minako and Endymion stopped a few feet from one another, taking each other's measure.

"Lady--my general Kunzite tells me you are a Venusian, and that you were found inspecting our camp. Tell me truthfully, Lady Venusian, and let a path to friendship and trust begin, on whose authority did you do this?"

"Truthfully, on my own. And mine alone. My Liege had no idea that I took on this mission in the name of their and their planet's security. If you have anyone to blame for this incident, that too is mine to bear alone." Endymion held her gaze with those brilliant dark blue eyes.

"Very well, why did you come then? Do you wish for peace?"

"I came out of nothing more than fear for my liege, because I knew not what I would find. Two years of silence from an entire planet is politically disorienting. We had every reason to expect the worst. But as I have seen from my own treatment and the stories I have been told, I believe I can say now that I would be very glad of peace between us." Endymion smiled at that, and there was something boyishly sweet in it.

"Good, I'm glad to hear it. But I should be equally glad to hear who is coming tonight and what to expect." He said warmly.

"Ah!" Minako replied calmly, "Power and beneficence beyond comprehension. But don't make any sudden moves until addressed. Not all of the power is in beneficence. But the beneficence keeps the power in check, when it has a chance to. So be respectful and all should go well."

"I'd wager I'm meeting your queen then but there is more to it than that, Venusian, is there not? So tell me, what is your main role and, Lady?, And what is your name? So I may know how to address you." Endymion asked in a warm-eyed genuine way that stole all your secrets, and made you one believe they went willingly to him.

"To the first question, yes. But I have warned you that I am not at liberty to give you more information on that matter. And yes, with due respect to your majesty, that is all I can say. And as to the others, I am primarily a general. My name is Minako."

"Primarily?" Endymion replied pointedly. She met his eyes squarely.

"Yes. And anything beyond that my queen will tell you, if she deems the information necessary." Then Minako smiled at him brightly and raised her shoulders in a girlish little shrug. "Sorry." Endymion shook his head, laughing slightly.

"Very well, very well. As you wish. Come, sit with me and let me introduce you to _my _generals. I'm sure they would be glad to hear of your specialties as a soldier, as indeed would I."

"Ah yes," She answered pleasantly, but not yet willing to drop the formalities, "Your general Kunzite told me but a little of your military success here. But I admit to being more impressed by the restraint you've instructed to your troops." Endymion smiled, kind, but not flattered, she noted with pleasure. A good man did not gush at honeyed words. She carefully avoided looking at Kunzite as she said his name, but it was hard to keep a slight awkwardness out of her voice as she said his name.

"Then, _General_ Minako." He looked to her for approval, which she gave with a nod, "May I introduce Zoicite, Fourth-in-Command, Shitennou of Europe."

A slender young man with sharp pretty features and kind intelligent green eyes stood and bowed to her with flourish.

"And Nephrite, Third-in-Command, Shitennou of the Western Lands."

An enormous man with great magnetism, a mane of brown hair, and deep brown eyes stood and bowed to her a little stiffly, for a courtier.

"Second-in-Command, Jadeite, Shitennou of the Far East."

The traditionally gorgeous young man with short cropped blond curls stood slowly, sensuously, catching her eyes with his gaze at once hot and calculated. Holding her gaze, he bowed with careless grace and an expression that made promises of whispers on your pillow.

"And you know Kunzite, High General, Commander-in-Chief of my armies, second only to myself, Shitennou of the Middle East."

But Kunzite followed procedure none the less and bowed with equal grace as Jadeite, but none of the swagger or promises. He merely looked at her calmly waiting for his prince to continue. He did not meet her eyes, but the space just above her head. Minako inclined her head, dropping her eyes, biting the inside of her cheek. She still felt him touching her every time he looked at her. She couldn't look at him, knowing what he was capable of beyond that knightly politeness. Endymion cocked an eyebrow.

"Well, now you know who we are, so come Lady General, we have a few hours before we meet your Queen," Endymion offered her the chair at his right hand at the table, as Kunzite sat back down and the chair to his left, leaving the pair across from one another, the rest of the men in a straight line down from Kunzite, in order of rank. "Tell us, what had the outside galaxy known about the abrupt silence from Earth? What had the discussion at the council been?"

"We knew next to nothing, as I'd said. We had known the king was ailing before the radio silence commenced" Minako notice the shadow cross the prince's eyes. "We were not aware that the line of succession had been changed before his passing, my condolences, we had not realized, had not known…" She hesitated on the delicate point.

"That my brother Arthur would not assume the throne." He cited the fact patiently. "So now you think of me as at best an upstart, and and at worst, a murderer, yes?"

"No, your highness! Not at all. We had no idea what had happened here. We did not presume foul-play on the part of anyone in particular, or even that the king was truly dead."

"Although by saying 'anyone is particular' you acknowledge that you suspected foul-play all the same." Zoicite countered evenly. Minako had a feeling this was the interrogation Kunzite had alluded to earlier.

"Yes. Entire planets do not shut down because of peace and prosperity but because of war. We knew something bad must have happened. That is the whole reason I was sent, to find out what."

"And to help yourselves based on what you found." Jadeite said smiling, a sharp feral smile that was more for the primal effect of bared teeth. Endymion and Kunzite simultaneously tensed. Jadeite looked over at them, shrugging before he turned back to Minako with a smug smile. Minako noted their interaction with interest.

Looking Jadeite in the eye, she answered confidently, "Yes, and all of you would do the same. You would be negligent if you did not." His jaw tensed and darkened. '_A wolf in sheep's...oh whatever it is'_ she thought to herself.

"Easy, Lady General," Endymion called out. "we mean no offense, so long as this trip of yours meant none. Although there are eight lives to be paid for, you must understand. Owed to me, as their liege."

"And what price, your highness?" Minako countered warily.

"A favor, when I need it. I have not thought of a specific one yet."

"I must agree to do it...I will be allowed to choose to do it or not." She said, balking at the idea of owing the mean an undefined favor.

"You gave my men no choice." He countered placidly, pleasantly. She stared him down.

"There are things I will not do." Her voice voice was steel. The five men noted her resolve with approval.

"We shall see, General Minako, but back on the subject of what you knew, Did you truly know nothing of what happened with Arthur or of the resulting wars?" Endymion redirected the conversation.

"Nothing. We could observe the wars from the moon but without communication, we had no way of knowing the reason." He nodded tensely.

"Alright, then I can understand your curiosity, but why wait? Why two long years?"

"Simple, your highness. We observed that the fighting had all but ceased. And so with the possibility of renewing diplomatic relations with the new power, it was decided that we could investigate who we were dealing with, who ruled over this new peace."

"Ah," Nephrite said, leaning back in his seat, putting one arm up on the backrest of the chair. His large body looming larger as he stretched it out. "I think I begin to see. You were checking to see if we were 'hostile barbarians' like the rest of the galaxy claimed of our forefathers!" He added, voice rising.

"Nephrite." Kunzite called in a low voice. It seemed to puncture the larger man. He straightened in his seat with a slight sigh, crossing his arms over his chest, not looking at anyone .

"Depending on who won, the ones who initiated this long, blood war or the ones who fought to bring back order...we would have acted differently. But we had no reason to assume either was true, and did what any pragmatist would do: prepare for the worst. I hope your not going to hold what my great-great-great-_great_ grandparents did to yours against me. I believe in peace, in life, in love, not in hierarchy or conquest."

Endymion's blue eyes were on Nephrite's before they met hers, and they were sharp for a moment before he intentionally gave her a calm gaze. She suppressed a shudder at the intensity. Formidable. And this was toward a friend. She prayed to the Goddess that she never received that look.

"I'm glad to hear it, Lady General." Endymion murmured in his voice like waves, deep, undulating, powerful, soothing. "Now, it is only fair, you may ask me some questions, although I ask you hold on asking for the timeline of this war, since I'm sure your queen will ask me this evening." Minako nodded in assent.

"What is the source of your magic? You five, I've never sensed such magic so well honed outside of royalty from the line of heirs. And yet you four, you have powers like your king. How?"

"Zoicite, I'll put that one to you." Endymion answered.

"We believe," Zoicite replied, leaning forward, folding his hands in front of him, looking at Minako warmly with those warm eyes from his seat next to the still vaguely absent Nephrite. "That is simply a matter of the nature of our planet. Most planets have one ruling house because they have one great power to control, which it bestows on their monarchy and to lesser degrees on their people. Like...fire to Mars. Earth has four elemental powers and the fifth core power. We" He gestured to the other generals, "carry those elemental powers."

"Endymion's line bears the fifth power that underlies the others, the force of life, then." Minako stated to be sure she had it right. Zoicite nodded.

'Interesting.' Minako thought to herself, glancing at each man, wondering who was which element. But lunch arrived at that moment, capturing her chance to ask.

At first, the meal was awkwardly quiet. That clear desire of five men, long apart, to catch-up but restrained by fear of saying too much in front of someone not trustworthy, it was something she was familiar with. It was so often her senshi and princess at state dinners, or at balls.

Endymion, noting the discomfort of their guest at the silence, instructed Nephrite to tell of a recent skirmish, news of which had spread far and wide.

With a little awkwardness at first, trying to tell the story within social protocol, he set the scene. A town his army had been riding through, on the coast of the mid-northwest of his continent, in humid, swampy land, he had come upon a group waiting for him.

Seeing that he held their attention rapt, he began to tell the story for real. Dropping the courtly voice that Minako could now tell was not natural for him and speaking in common speech, he spoke rapidly, using his hands, banging on the table, mimicking the facial expressions of the other players in his tale.

By the time he finished with, "and so sixty townswomen were chasing after my men and I with scissors and I decided not to try to enter then town without introductions first", everyone was more relaxed.

The rest of the men went on to thrown in their own stories and to take jabs at Nephrite who roared in anger but then ended up laughing at himself within minutes of Jadeite mimicking his behavior. Only Kunzite and Minako did not share in the exchange of tales and barbs, only laughing when appropriate, him out of habit and her out of newness. Minako shifted awkwardly every time she felt Kunzite's eyes drift to her. It sent a jolt of pain from her waist every time she did, as though to remind her why his gaze unnerved her.

Jadeite laughed about the young girl who had sent him love letters three times a day for the past month, while Endymion recounted the litany of requests he was getting from nobles now that his position as king was assured. Then Zoicite took his turn bemoaning the slow progress of rebuilding the central transmitter to the external galaxy because monkey's kept stealing his parts off of the machine.

"And it's not like I can just order new parts like that." He snapped in exacerbation. "All of the factories that once specialized in production of these machines have been converted into weapon-smiths. The art has been all but lost. And now I have to find a THIRD replacement. I hate monkeys."

"Well you just HAVE to work at home, prima-donna, in your personal little tropical paradise. And you know that means wildlife. Why don't you just deal with it, and work from the capital?" Jadeite asked, bored.

"I am not a prima-donna. I just happen to have more of my texts at home to reference. But I have conceded your point. I've ordered that my work be set up in the capital last week. It should be ready by now." He replied distantly, clearly thinking about bigger things than Jadeite.

The conversation hit a brief lull before Nephrite picked it up again.

"But of all of us, it seems Kunzite here had the best luck! I get mobbed by housewives, Jadeite by a girl-child, Endymion by courtiers, and Zoicite by monkeys! By good old First over here has a beautiful woman fall into his lap. Always the best luck of any of us." He laughed until he saw Zoicite's eye widen in horror.

"I was only kidding, Kunzite." He directed to the man who showed no outside sign of anger but whose eyes lost the laughing warmth they had had earlier in the conversation. "I know it was nothing like that. You're not the type to be taken in by pretty distractions. We all know nothing happened besides your investigating a threat, albeit a lovely one."

Minako felt the blood drain from her face. All the men at the table were looking silently from Nephrite to Minako in horror as he dug himself in deeper, insulting both Minako and Kunzite. Kunzite stood,

"I have further preparations make for her majesty's arrival. Excuse me." He answered, non-pulsed.

As soon as he had gone, Jadeite yelled out "Idiot!" which was unnecessary, as Nephrite realized the depth and nature of his transgression. All eye focused back on Minako. Zoicite smiled apologetically and Jadeite simply looked at her hard as if this whole incident where her fault, not the man he'd just blamed, as if he saw the two of them together. She fought a blush. Endymion quickly spoke, a hint of a smile playing at the edges of his lips.

"Lady, General. We have kept you too long already with our boring affairs. You are, of course, free to go and get ready for the meeting tonight."

She did not comment that she had no need to get ready, and took the kindly offered opportunity to exit. Quickly.

* * *

I know, it's been a while. I'm sorry. Life's crazy. But thank you to everyone who reviewed; I haven't deserted you. Your reviews help, they really does. I made this longer than I'd intended, as a sort of peace offering. And I need to extend an especial thanks to my A-MAZING beta reader, VO1, without whom, this might never have gotten editted. Till next time, much love!


	7. The Arrival

In no way do I own Sailor Moon, just the plot and an occasional OC.

* * *

Built on Shifting Ground

Chapter Seven:

The Arrival

She found herself at his tent, unconsciously drawn there. The guards stood before her, eyeing her strangely as she stood, neither moving nor asking to enter. At length, one of the men called out to his leader.

"The lady to see you, General!" Silence reigned for a few more awkward moments.

"Permission granted." Came the quiet reply. The men parted and her limbs moved her, unbidden, into the tent. Kunzite stood when she entered, looking straight at her. Before she made it five steps, he started to speak.

"I have to apologize for General Nephrite's behavior. He, well, he is a good man and a great general, but he speaks like a soldier. If he had stopped to think, I'm sure he-"

"Would have realized I can still feel your fingerprints on my skin?" She cut him off, as coolly as asking for a glass of water. He felt his mouth open slightly and closed it hastily. He took a deep breath.

"I'm sure," He continued purposefully, "that he would have refrained from making comments which were inappropriate."

"I like General Nephrite." Minako replied sweetly, "He is an honest man. He speaks the truth even while you hide behind etiquette to avoid addressing what happened between us."

He raised an eyebrow at her, keeping his face calm--although he felt his rarely ruffled temper rising.

"What is there to address? It will never happen again. And there is nothing more to say. Besides, I am not the only one here who hides behind protocol to avoid telling the truth."

"Yes, but I came clean about that, didn't I?"

"When forced." He quipped. She smiled, dangerously bright, hands on her hips, eyes glittering.

"So you need to be forced, is that it? I don't think that's what I would call what happened earlier. I'm sure you never thought this would happen--no--were _positive _we could never happen. But then it did." She was walking toward him now, smiling lightly. He stood up taller. This girl may have been the most formidable advisory he had met in ages, but he was not a man to back down. "How can you ensure that you won't surprise yourself again? I am very convincing." She smiled up into his face, weaving him into her web of self-serving logic.

"I highly doubt a virgin knows much about the sort of convincing your smile suggests." He replied dismissively.

Hurt flashed in her eyes for the barest moment, as he went right for the one weakness he had positively identified. Kunzite felt torn. The comment may have been below him, but then, it was all he had. He didn't have long to muse, as her hurt was buried by a sly expression.

"Really? Is that why you almost devoured me earlier save for a guard interrupting?"

"A momentary lapse, nothing more would have happened." She sighed, eyeing him with a bored gaze.

"If you say so, but time will tell who was right, General. The sun is low in the sky. I will go thank Nadia for her care before the commotion this evening makes it impossible. Till dusk."

"Time will tell." He whispered as she turned and walked, not looking back. And he had a sense of how possible it was that she could have been right as he watched her hips swaying. With or without lovers, this Venusian still knew a thing or two about lust. The tent closed. He shook his head. How she had this power over him, he did not understand.

*

In Nadia's tent, being talked half to death by the beautiful healer about the preparations to met the Queen, Minako was having similar thoughts. That man!

He drove her to distraction. She had never been this brazen before. But then again, with no other man had she felt desire in a kiss. Minako silently cursed her luck that the first man she desired lived on another planet, one with no diplomatic status. And if that were not enough, he had to be so difficult!

She smiled despite herself. His being difficult was somewhat fun; there was something so alluring about getting to be the seductress, about meeting a man who would not strip if she snapped her fingers (At least, not yet.); about seasoned warrior, both in politics and war; about a man who knew how to read though all her training and see her; about a man who knew what she was - a courteous liar, a strategist, and a murderer besides just a beautiful, accomplished, charming woman - who knew that, but did not bolt! And who still desired her! It was-

She felt it like a knife, and her body went rigid. The energy amassing on the moon and her own power, buried by the power of the moon and now returned, overwhelmed her. Her symbol glowed on her forehead. She swore she was burning to death as energy raced through her veins. But she said nothing to the frantic Nadia yelling somewhere near her, or the yelling guards or even the being holding her arms in place to prevent her from harming herself.

None of it mattered as she could feel the power of the Imperium Silver Crystal lock on to her and the feeling of her sisters' energy materializing near her. Then, in a flash, it all stopped. She lay on the ground, held firmly down by Kunzite. The King and the other generals stood in the doorway, and next to her Nadia was bowing.

The Queen, her Princess, and the Inner Senshi faced the men, standing just behind her. She turned her head to look at the new arrivals. And then she saw Rei's face.

"Drop. Your. Hands. Now!" She whispered with deadly, barely restrained rage. "Or I will kill you immediately."

Kunzite and Nadia stood and back away cautiously, unaware of how else to respond.

Minako began to sit up, but clutched at her head. Mars flinched, but did not move from her defensive position in Jupiter in front of the Queen and Princess.

"Mercury!" The Queen's voice called out, the strain just audible. Mercury stepped forward to help Minako up and took her to the princess, who held her tightly.

The Queen turned to Minako, touching her face, the sweetness making Minako feel horribly guilty. "Venus, were you hurt in any way?" Minako shook her head.

"No. Not by them. Any injury was my own fault or a misunderstanding. They cared for me admirably. They seem to be good men, in my humble opinion. Shall I do introductions, my Queen?"

"Yes, but transform first. It will help the queasiness you feel. And then," She added telepathically, "_You have some explaining to do, Venus._"

"Yes, my Queen." Minako drew on her power and felt the tension leave her body as she felt the comfort of her Senshi form cover her. With her head no longer spinning, she turned to face the men. She reached out on her soul links to the Senshi and her princess and expressed her gratitude before continuing. She met the stately figures of Endymion and his guard, hiding their surprise behind stern battle hardened surfaces. Only Endymion looked at ease.

"King Endymion, and the Shitennou, I present my queen, her majesty, Queen Selene Serenity XI of the Moon Kingdom and Ruler of the Silver Millennium Alliance." Sailor Venus stepped back. Mars and Jupiter parted, but remained stationed close.

"Queen Serenity, it is an honor to see you again, although I wish the circumstances were better." Endymion said smiling lightly. The Queen smiled back, a twinkle in her eye. All the other women looked at the queen sharply.

"It is good to see you again too Endymion. It has been a long time, and look at you! What a man you have become; your mother would be proud." Endymion bowed his head in thanks. She smiled and continued. "I too wish the circumstances were better. If it had been your signature in the vicinity of my Senshi when her signal went dead, I should not have feared for her. But I had no sense of you, could I have been mistaken? Was it you who found her?" The Queen asked gently.

Endymion shook his head, "No. You were right to fear it. You could not have known that the power you sensed was that of one of my loyal Shitennou. So you see, the signature was one of them. Your 'general'" He looked at Venus with a mocking, quizzical gaze, "told us that the outer galaxy knew nothing of our war. It is only natural that you should fear an unknown magic signature near where you lost contract with a soldier."

"Thank you for being understanding, King Endymion. My 'general', as you call her, spoke the truth in that. Although I believe, out of a duty to me, she shared little else of the truth. Allow me to introduce my ladies: these are the legendary Sailor Senshi. Their leader, Sailor Venus, Head of the Imperial Guard, Crown Princess Minako Aphrodite of Venus." Minako bowed slightly, feeling Kunzite's gaze hard on her. She avoided it, and noted that the other men's were curiously absent despite her telling them the same half-truths. They bowed back, but their eyes were not on her. She thought it strange.

"Second in Command, Sailor Mars, High Priestess of the Oracle, Crown Princess Rei Serafina of Mars." Rei bowed stiffly and Minako realized why at least one of them had not looked her way; his eyes were consuming the fire senshi.

"Third in Command, Sailor Jupiter, Instructor in Chief of New Recruits, Crown Princess Makoto Hera of Jupiter." Makoto bowed, blushing lightly under the intense gaze of dark brown eyes.

"Fourth in Command, Sailor Mercury, Head of Intelligence, Crown Princess Ami Athenis of Mercury." The bright eyes of the intelligent young Shitennou were looking at the exotic beauty hopefully. Ami kept her eyes down.

"And Finally, my heir and only daughter, Princess Selene Serenity XII." Serenity bowed, shaking slightly under all the attention that was instantly switched to her, especially that of the High King. This did not surprise Minako, since she had noticed the Princess eyeing him since nearly the moment she entered. It made her uneasy.

"It is a pleasure to finally met you all in person. I never knew your predecessors but at a distance, the Queens of the respective planets now, I presume." The Queen nodded. "And I am honored to see you again, Princess." He said, eyes laughing. Serenity looked at him curiously before her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

"Y-you!" Serenity sputtered in disbelief, "You're the one who used to tie my pigtails to the backs of my chairs when I came to visit! Aren't you?!"

"I'm afraid so." He answered with a mock solemn sigh. Everyone resisted the urge to laugh.

"You!" Serenity started again before looking up at her mother, who had clearly told her to stop through their soul-bond. Serenity deflated. For a split second, Endymion looked disappointed, but he covered quickly by introducing his men in return. It was less stiffly formal now that Serenity had broken the tension.

"And now if you would join us, we have a banquet prepared in your honor." Endymion offered the Queen his arm, and flushed as she begrudgingly took Endymion's other arm when when he offered it. Predictably, the others paired off by rank to walk in.

Kunzite offered her his arm, addressing her coldly as _Sailor_ Venus. She took it, and was astonished to find that her heart started to race, despite his coolness, simply by being close to him. Kunzite felt it too and glowered more menacingly because of him. He kept wondering how he had managed to involve himself with the heir to Venus.

*

Dinner was a lavish affair. Considering they were in a military encampment and the limited prep time, just another reminder to Minako of how capable Kunzite was, though not the only way she was interested in. Endymion had musicians play, some sort of wind instrument Minako was not familiar with. He offered, in an attempt to prove his willingness for peace, to offer any questions the Queen had about his role in the war or his plans for the future.

"A very kind gesture." She said settling back into her chair with grace, clearly stating that she intended to take full advantage of it. She smiled. "Tell me, how did it all fall apart?"

Endymion smiled at her directness.

"It started with regicide." The Queen's beautiful eyes darkened.

"Theseus was murdered?" Her voice was low. Next to her, Serenity tensed at that tone, so rarely used in her presence.

"Yes. By one of his wives, we now believe, because she was too well placed for a siege of the palace on the night of his death not to know he was going to be dead in the morning. Her timing was too perfect."

"So she killed a dying man to ensure that she would be the first one to make a move for the throne?" The Queen asked indignantly. Endymion nodded. "Unpardonable."

"Yes, and to add to the confusion, my elder brother, Meleager, was murdered as well." The Queen nodded at the sinister logic in the move. "And my father never named the rest of his sons as heirs in the Act of Succession, that way none of us would be tempted to pick one another off, especially the crown prince, in a push to get the throne. And my father's young queens took the ambiguity as their chance to disinherit me, the logical heir."

"I begin to see." The Queen said simply.

"Yes, and so I found myself exiled, amassing troops to take over a throne I had never thought of as my own. But I could not let my stepmothers and young, foolish brothers rule it in greed in pride. I have too much respect for my people to allow that. And, thankfully, the Gods were on my side. Now, two years later, all of my younger brothers have renounced their claims to the throne or regretfully died fighting for it. Except my youngest, who is only ten years old and in no way responsible for the war others wage in his name."

"Which Queen is it, the one who is using this child to gain power? I do not believe I received an announcement of his birth." She replied carefully, not wanting to bring back up the slight.

"No, and I am sorry, my father had begun to cut us off from the outside galaxy at that point. He was truly ill, your Majesty, to his very spirit. I ask you not to hold it against his memory." The Queen nodded gravely. She and Theseus had been great friends, long ago. "My youngest brother was born to the Sixth Queen." There was strange tension in Endymion's delivery of the nondescript phrase.

The Queen drew back.

"Ah! That one! Yes, I could see that. She was but a low courtier in your mother's train when I last visited. But even then, well, yes, it is enough to say I could believe her capable of it. And she is the one you believe killed your father and brother, I would imagine?"

"Yes, or who ordered it." The Senshi where now not even feigning polite interest, as observers of the tale, but were openly listening, rapt. The Queen sat in quiet thought for some time.

"I am very sorry for your loss. Losing family is one of life's worst trials. I could not, however, be happier to know that you have been successful in winning back your throne. I knew your nature to be good even as a child, albeit mischievous." Serenity flushed, the anger still there. Her mother patted her hand. But Minako sensed something more going on as the King's eyes flickered to Serenity and he flashed her a conspiratorial smile. "But I do wonder, why the silence? Why not announce your victory to the galaxy? Surely our support would help solidify you position legally."

Endymion ran a hand across his forehead, letting it slide down the side of his face to support his head.

"That is a rather interesting point. I can't believe, having taken back the capital and set about restoring our communication equipment," Zoicite fidgeted slightly, at which Jadeite stifled a laugh, garnering a glare from Rei. "That they would have willingly destroyed it. But destroyed it was, completely, fried by an energy source, like mixing currents. So we can't figure out why they would do so intentionally or how if unintentionally."

"I might be able to offer you some assistance." Endymion bowed slightly at the offer. "I happen to have one of the most advance minds for technology of the age in my service. Mercury, would you be so good as to remain here a few days and investigate this?" Mercury stood.

"Of course, my Queen, if they desire my assistance." Endymion smiled warmly at her, and gesture to Zoicite.

"Zoicite can take you to the capital tomorrow, if you wish to start then. He is the lead man in charge of the repairs." Mercury's arms were locked straight at her sides, a sure sign she was nervous, but she agreed in a calm voice.

The Queen smiled at Mercury.

"Thank you, Mercury. Any other way we may be of assistance to you, you need only ask."

"You are most kind. And you must stay with us at the capital for a few days. It is newly ready to receive guests again. It would be a good time to formally open diplomatic proceedings." Endymion answered smoothly.

"I am very sorry that I will have to postpone such a visit for now. The Alliance will need a report in the morning on this turn of events; I will need to be there to present one. But I will leave my Senshi here on my behalf to being the negotiations until the Princess and I can return."

The Senshi tensed at the thought of being left here, indefinitely.

"That would be most agreeable. They will be honored guests at my palace and those of the Shitennou." He offered grandly.

"May this be the beginning of better days for all of us." The Queen answered in a silvery tone.

"May it be."

At his response, the Queen stood and took Serenity by the hand, who was looking at her Senshi pleadingly. Along her bonds, she begged them not to leave her alone like this, her best friends and confidants. But they did not move or make any outward expression of longing or remorse, for the Queen, along her bonds with each of them was sternly whispering,

_"Be on you best behavior. This is an important task. You will stay here and represent not only your planets, but the whole SMA, and me. This is your duty, do not make me order you to do it._"

They knew to obey. It was what they did best. The Queen smiled at them.

"_I will be in touch, ladies_."

In a flash, the Lunarian royalty was gone, leaving nine young people alone in an anxious quiet.

*

Sorry for the very extended wait. I have not abandoned this story. It just refuses to develop linearly, so I keep having pieces done for later but not the chapter I need. *Sigh* Well, here it is, at long last. I'm working on the next section now. Thanks for sticking with me here, especially my Beta, VO1.

-goldnheart


	8. Departure

In no way do I own Sailor Moon, just the plot and an occasional OC.

* * *

Built on Shifting Ground

Chapter Eight:

Departure

"Ladies." Endymion's wine-rich voice broke the lasting silence. "It is late, and I need some time to think of how to best use this very generous gift from your queen. Why don't we retire for the night and discuss plans in the morning?" The question was mainly directed toward Venus.

"Sounds like a plan," Venus replied simply.

"All right. Kunzite? I know this is short notice, but could you see to it that the Senshi are given suitable accommodations?"

"It is no problem. I had a place made ready for the Queen…and if they do not mind sharing..." Kunzite replied, bowing.

"Not at all. We're quite...sturdy. Of course we can handle sleeping together." Venus said, wide-eyed and sweet.

"Re-really!?!" Jadeite sputtered, voice too bright, too excited, "Tell me, does this happen often?" He still stared down Mars, who looked ready to kill him, or Venus, who looked as though she was having trouble deciding who to destoy first. Zoisite kept his head down, sighing, while Nephrite and Kunzite looked at Venus oddly.

"Jadeite..." Endymion called softly, smiling a bit at Venus' comment. Jadeite looked at him blankly.

"Yes Master?"

Endymion sighed. "Never mind."

Jadeite shrugged and smiled at Mars.

"Well, then," Kunzite called, drawing the attention back to him. "Ladies, since you are equipped, allow me to show you to your lodgings."

"Thank you." Minako and the others turned to follow him, bowing in farewell to the others. "And good night Your Majesty, Shitennou." A chorus of goodnights and bows followed them on their way out, a pace behind the brooding head Shitennou. Mars grabbed Venus' arm, hauling her back a few paces.

"What the hell was that about, Venus? You are off the maps for three _agonizing_ days, and when I first see you, you're being held down by an Earthling only to make a comment like that in a room full of strange men. Don't you know what those perverts were thinking?"

"Oh Rei, just the one pervert it seems, and he only seems interested in you." She smiled at her fuming companion.

"Minako! Stop being so _stupid_. Why would you say that?"

Minako was silent for a moment. "The tall fair, quite one, the one guiding us, I want him."

"You WHAT? Your capturer? You're endangering us all so you can sleep with this barbarian?!"

"Rei. Three things. One,_ never_ use that word again or _you_ will ruin our chances for a peace mission here. Two, I am not endangering you. Those are good men in there. You have nothing to fear from them--don't cut me off--you know you sense no evil there either. And three - I am a Venusian royal, I have certain obligations I must fulfill just like you do. Having lovers just happens to be one of mine. People on my planet blame every problem, from poor crops to natural disasters, on me. Do you know that? On my disfunction, on my frigidity. This is the first and only man I have ever desired on sight. Do not try to prevent me from honoring the wishes of my people and stabilizing my throne. I never ask you to cut back on your mediations or ceremonial work in the temple because I know that it is your duty to your people. Now, give me the same respect even if you do not respect the nature of the obligation."

Venus violently shook off a shocked Mars' arm and strode forward to take Kunzite's, who stiffened as the golden blond smiled up at him. Mars looked at the aghast faces of Jupiter and Mercury, as the turned back to look at her from where they had been blocking their arguing leaders. From their confusion, it was clear they had not heard the conversation, but they had felt the emotions rolling off the pair, and the mismatch with the playful smile on Venus' face as she looked the general. Mars sighed. They would all have to have a good long talk--if Venus _would_ talk to her.

*

Minako spoke in a low, sultry murmur so that none of the Senshi could overhear.

"Looks like we'll be given plenty of time to test that belief of yours. Are you sure you wouldn't rather give in now? We would have all evening."

"No thank you, _Princess_," he said equally quiet, "I think you've gotten me far enough involved in intergalactic intrigue for one trip. I have no plans to be the consort of a Venusian queen, especially one with the unprecedented title of virgin attached to her name after the age of fifteen. It is a condition that speaks of scandal I would rather not be embroiled in. Which reminds me, _Princess_, where did last night's panicked virgin go? Don't expect me to believe someone can change that much over night."

"You should believe that a woman is wise enough to change her mind to fit new information. As I remember it, last night you showed me you are both a good man and a passionate one, rather than the cold solider first presented. Why would I be afraid to take such a man to bed?" She answered carefully, not responding to his first complaint: too much truth in it.

"You know nothing about me; you don't know what I'm capable of." He said, his voice clear and cold.

"I know you. I know you because you're like me. Someone who knows the value of what they work for, someone with an inhuman weight on your shoulders, someone who has pushed themselves to their limits to serve, who has compromised and altered themselves, who has faced their own evil and darkness for a cause. Someone who wears masks to protect not only against others, but against yourself, against the parts you don't want to see in the mirror. I know exactly what you're capable of. I know. And I know you. I know you, Kunzite, because I know myself." Kunzite stared at her as she stopped and smiled at him with absolute, reckless abandon. Even in his anger, he rather liked the sight.

"Then I should kill you."

"But it is against your duty, because my death would threaten your prince," she whispered. Kunzite tensed at the threat. Then her voice rose, and honeyed, "Thank you general." She gestured to the tent Kunzite had not realized they had reached. "Good night, then. Ladies, shall we?"

Without so much as a glance back, she walked into the tent, followed by the Senshi, who muttered goodnights to the stricken general as the passed.

When the tent closed behind Mercury, he found it in himself to walk away. The thought that anyone knew him like she had described, enough to see what he worked with every breath to suppress, unnerved him greatly, and compelled him to kill her. If she was right, and she was just like him, she would have thought of that too, and he was equally as in danger if negotiations broke down. Worse than that, if she really thought like him, she would kill his prince to destroy him, just as he had considered with Serenity. Whatever would keep his cause safe.

He was not sure if it was more than a bluff by an excellent observer and tactician, but just the chance that her pronouncements were real made her much more dangerous than a spy or a desperate virgin, or a soldier, or a beautiful princess, or any of the many descriptions he had of the girl. At the juncture of those characteristics, something contradictory and novel formed in one Minako Aphrodite. Something dangerous, because she knew more about him than he knew about her. But he had suspicions.

And they did not make her less dangerous.

Until he knew, he was at a disadvantage and his prince was potentially in danger. And that, above all else, told him to get close, and to find out what made this girl tick. If she wanted to use some stupid excuse like seducing him to get information, he could let her believe she'd succeeded, if it meant seeing whether she was a real threat or a good guess.

Like the sands around them, he would have to let her believe her footing was sound before pulling her in to drown in the heated grains. She would have to believe it was a battle, as he had started off rebuffing her advance, and that it was a battle she had won. And once she was assured in her victory, he would have all the information he need to throw her off balance, if she was a threat. Plotting the death of a planetary princess was hardly something he would admit to, but he would be ready, if she had other intentions than just a night in his bed.

It was war; one loss, a loss which landed him in bed and her at the point of a sword, was hardly a terrible sacrifice. He smiled to himself; she would be wrong.

Minako Aphrodite had no idea what he was capable.

*

Minako sat down on one of the plush pillows around the low table so much like Kunzite's. With wary steps, the Senshi approached the lioness as she sat, regally adjusting her mane, dropping her transformation slowly.

"Come on, sit down, I know we need to discuss this. I'm ready to talk now." Her voice was level but vaguely exasperate. The other women obliged, adjusting into civilian form as well: light shift dresses in creams and white, jewels in their house colors at the waist.

"Minako..." Ami began, always the most diplomatic. "You didn't have to do this alone. Any one of us could have accompanied you. It would have been safer."

Makoto could hardly wait until Ami finished to lay into her leader. "Exactly, Minako! We were so worried. You disappear like that, without giving us any real warning. We're closer than blood, Minako, don't shut us out like that." Minako waited for Rei to speak, but she did not. Judiciously.

"If I had told you, you would have wanted to go. And I could not have that. I would not have sent any of you out to do this kind of mission."

"Why!?!" Rei spat. "Why do you not trust us?" Her voice cracked on the last two words, and she hated herself for it.

"Oh Rei, it's not about trusting you, but myself. If I had let you, any of you, come with me, if I had sent you into danger like that on just my speculations...I could never have lived with myself. But I had to know what was causing the energy spikes you kept recording, Ami. What if it had been a threat amassing and not Endymion and his generals rebuilding the magic defenses on the capital? It had to be investigated, and best just me at risk instead of all of us. Better the one whose own paranoia would not let her sleep on it then the rest of you."

She reached out to touch Rei's shoulder. "I trust you." She held the other two Senshi in her gaze. "All of you. Implicitly, without reservation. Which is why I needed to know you were all with Usagi in case something happened to me; I needed to know the she would be safe and that you would know what to do if I didn't come back, and if there was a threat.

Why did you all come with the Queen and Usagi to find me anyways? It could have been dangerous."

"Her majesty sensed Endymion's presence in the vicinity of where your signal had last been reported." Rei said, ice cold, voice barely above a monotone as she relayed the information. "She knew it meant you were either safe or near where she could call Endymion for backup. Her majesty trusts him. She felt the weight of diplomacy would be more effective than force, so she came herself to resolve the situation."

"Very well. Under any other circumstances, I would have wanted them and you back on the moon."

"Ridiculous!" Ami said, standing, the sharpness of her voice surprising them all, "This was way to dangerous for you to go alone. You're our leader because the Queen trusts your judgment, and our willingness to follow you. You are not our leader because you are capable of doing all that we do as a team alone. We're here to support one another. The second you forget that, we're weakened, Minako. I could have told you when your communicator was approaching a signal scrambler before it went dead. Then I could have locked onto you with a tracking device. If you had told us what you were doing, this could have been a coordinated effort. Instead, we spent two agonizing days not knowing if you were dead waiting for Rei to have your location revealed to her by the goddess."

"She's right." Makoto said uncomfortably, "We stay together. We live together, we die together, and we protect Usagi together. If this had threatened her, then we all should have been there to eliminate it immediately." Her voice was heavy with emotion.

Rei did not respond. Her eyes spoke volumes to her best friend. Minako swallowed, the words she knew she had to say hanging in her throat below the pain and shame; she forced them to surface.

"_Please_. Please understand. I made this decision no differently than the others I have made. This seemed the safest bet, for all of us. I am devoted to all of you, but when it comes to Usagi, I take no chances. I see your point, Ami. It was a miscalculation to not include at least one of you. I just couldn't imagine leaving her any less protected than having all of your attention, especially if something really was wrong down here. And now she is alone..."

"It makes me nervous too." Makoto said softly. "We're _her_ guard for a reason. She's not able to defend herself alone. And now we're, we're some kind of peace offering."

"Because of my sloppy work." Minako said, dropping her head. "God, if anything happens to her too..."

"Stop, Minako. Just stop." Rei said, her voice cool, professional, sterile. "Don't use this as an excuse to fall back into self-blame about other issues. This is not some accident you were too inexperienced to have prevented. This was something completely within your training: to trust in your soldiers. This is something you simply don't do again. Don't misconstrue this with what happened to your father."

Minako went rigid at the last line. Instantly, Rei knew she had crossed a line, to call the shadow that trailed Minako by name. Rei frowned at the silence. For herself, trouble was when she started yelling; for Minako, it was when she stopped.

"Minako..." she started, her voice soft.

"You've said enough, Rei." Minako replied, voice metallic and cold. The discussion was closed. Then, abruptly, Minako smiled on them all, the bright, false smile Rei hated. "Next topic. So, what did you all think of the generals? They seemed to think a lot of all of you!"

Matoko and Ami laughed uneasily; Rei could not bring herself to.

"They seem very capable." Ami commented tenuously.

"Oh…come on Ami! Can't I wheedle an admission out of you? Aren't they...handsome?" Minako asked, leaning in to the smaller girl dramatically, batting her eyelashes for effect. Ami pursed her lips; Matoko and Rei were looking at her with interest now too. With a sigh, she made yet another sacrifice for the good of the Senshi.

"Yes, Minako, they are all handsome, as you are well aware." Ami said, looking at Minako, her face a picture of defiance and courage.

Silence reigned for a moment.

Then Makoto started to laugh, which Rei and Minako seconded. Ami 's face fell, and then she laughed too.

"Goddess...Ami" Makoto managed between breaths. "You'd think...you...were facing down...a monster...not your...friends!"

"Well, with the way you all normally behave about these matters, I-" she started but could not finish, as Minako leaned back into her lap, kissing the air above her. "Oh Minako! Stop!" She covered her face, laughing.

"Ladies," Minako said, in mock pained shock, rolling out of Ami's lap to stand with her hand to her chest. "It must be something quite particular which gets the Lady Mercury so worked up. Could it be...that there is someone quite particular she thinks is handsome? Hm? What say you, Ami Athenis?"

Ami looked away, uncomfortable. "That would be impossible. I've only been here a day and have never really spoken with any of them and-"

"Endymion?" Makoto provided, asking Rei and Minako only. "Or too obvious?"

"Too obvious." Minako said. "Not at all like Ami to be so common."

"Wait a second, I never said-" Ami protested.

"Jadeite?" Rei provided, looking to Minako, eye hopeful, another peace-offering, "Opposites do attract."

Minako took a second, the smiled at Rei genuinely. "I doubt it, but don't worry about it. Just because you're likely to fall for that teasing charm doesn't mean Ami would."

"I will not!" Rei cried, trying to sound affronted, but the happiness at Minako warming up undermined her attempt, "Besides, this is about Ami."

"Hey! Stop ganging up on me. This is not fair!"

Then Minako put up her finger and smiled that dangerous, over-bright smile, "Ladies, I think I know. How interesting. How _perfect._" She motioned to Rei and Makoto, who gathered around her. After a few moments of excited whispers, a few glances over shoulders, they pulled back into a line, arms crossed across their chests. Minako suppressed a laugh at the look of horror on Ami's face but fought it back. It would totally spoil the drama of the moment.

"Ami," Rei said, dark eyes flashing, "We wager that you would choose," she leaned in ruby lips parting in a smile, and spoke the word as a soft whisper, "_Zoisite._"

Ami felt herself turn red at their assessment. Laughter swelled around her.

"I-I-I would not. I do not know him. How can I like him? Not likely."

"But true," Minako said, pulling herself up tall and regal, "I would know. I am the chosen of the goddess of love, after all." The others groaned at the overused claim. "What?!?" Rei promptly shoved Minako back in the pillows. "Fine."

"Minako...about that." Makoto started, the only one whose pride had not been wounded that night.

"Yes?" Minako asked, lounging in the cushions Rei had deposited her on.

"That general, Kunzite, the one who found you. Is there something going on between you two? It looked a little tense, if you know what I mean" Minako smiled back, having a soft-spot for Makoto, the hopeful romantic of the group.

"Yes. I think there may be. It's the first time I've felt this way about a man. He's..." She looked away, thinking of the words, a slight smile on her lips, "Well, he's different."

Makoto smiled, achingly happy for her friend who needed this so much more than any of the other Senshi. "Tell us about him, Minako."

Minako glanced at Rei for a moment before smiling on Makoto. Again, Makoto noticed the motion.

"Oh Makoto, I don't know what it is exactly yet. I respect him. I can admire how he governs here and on what principles. And...oh, you're going to laugh at me...he tells me _no._" She laughed as Makoto's face fell and Rei rolled her eyes. Ami just kept listening.

"That's not very romantic!" Makoto protested in disappointment.

Minako laughed again, this time at the irony. "I know! But all the romance from the other suitors never worked, even when I tried to lie to myself that it did. Maybe this is what I need. Something more serious than sweet. Maybe I need to not have it all handed to me for me to want it." That gooey, happy look was back in Makoto's eyes. "That and you mentioned tension. You could cut the sexual tension with an axe."

"A knife." Ami provided, barely present, focusing on what Minako had told them.

"Really?" Minako asked, her brows furrowed. "An axe seems so much more effective. Oh well, anyways, it is tense. Goddess when he kissed me-" Minako answered, looking away.

"He _kissed _you." All three answered in very different tones. One excited, one irate, one concerned. Without looking, Minako knew which response belonged to whom. She bit back a smirk.

"But he was your capture!" Rei hissed is disgust. "That's not love. That's a psychological dysfunction of fear. Artemis taught us about it in our first year of training."

"I don't think this is quite the same, Rei." Ami said lightly, "You were honestly attracted to him though, Minako? You could tell the council that, could swear that before the oracle?"

"Yes, Ami. This time, I could swear it. It's over. It's finally over." Ami reached for her hand.

"Then I'm happy for you." She said, smile warm and gentle.

"But he's not your lover?" Makoto asked.

"No. Not yet. Hopefully with some convincing, he'll come around. Then this whole horror can be behind me, and my house." Rei still looked uncomfortable, but the still too near fight held her tongue. One did not call the shadow by name. "Look. I know this is not ideal. He is certainly not who I would pick, who I did pick as my consort. But the oracle is rather specific; I have to be attracted to them, and he is the only one."

"If anything goes wrong, promise me you'll tell us. Promise me today won't happen again. Promise me you'll let us help you." Rei said, though it pained her.

Minako looked at her, talking in the determination and strength in her pose, the love in her request.

"I promise, Rei. I will promise you that. If I sense anything wrong, I will tell you about it. Okay?" She looked to the wider group when she asked the last part. They nodded, with varying degrees of willingness.

"Alright, then let's get some sleep. There are only two beds. I assume one for me, one for the Queen. Rei, share with me. Makoto, Ami, take the Queen's bed." She gestured to the longer bed, thinking of Jupiter's legs. The lightening Senshi smiled her thanks and went behind the curtain.

*

Minako and Rei curled up in the small bed, wrapping their arms around one another as they had since they were children after a particularly bad training day, and the entire night after news of Minako's father's death reached the moon.

"Minako. I may have judged you too quickly today. I was just-I had been so terrified of losing you that to see you being so flippant with your life, putting it that man's hands, it was too much for me. But I can understand why you have to."

"Thank you, Rei. And I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my plan. I do trust you."

"As you should. Naturally. Minako?" Minako sighed. This day would never end.

"Yes Rei?"

"Is this really all about responsibility? I know you. You tend to get a little lax on responsibility if you can't se the reason for it. Is this really all about your throne and the conditions on your inheritance, or is this about disproving your father's accusers, or is this about something I haven't even considered?"

"Oh, I guess all three," Minako said, exhausted. "They're all tied together, so close I can't separate them."

"And the third would be?"

"I want him, Rei. He's got this draw for me. I can put down the illusion of my masks with him and you, of all people, know what a comfort that is. To find somebody you don't have to pretend with, don't need to, couldn't if you tried. That's what he is for me, and the fact that he is my political salvation, the vindication of my father's memory," She took a deep breath, shaking her head. "Perhaps alone, no one reason would be enough. But together, I can't help but feel it is somehow fated that we become involved at this time when our planet's interactions need to be strengthened."

"Then I will not try to stop you again, because I cannot. Fate is beyond even my talents of persuasion, which are substantial."

"If by persuasion, you mean verbal bludgeoning, then sure."

"Oh shut up, Minako!"

"Fine, fine, let's get some sleep."

"Fine. Goodnight Minako."

"Till the morning, Rei."

*

Kunzite entered Endymion's with all the cheer of the plague, and the cheery conversation subsequently fell dead. The other Shitennou looked to their prince. He looked to them.

Finally, Endymion caved, frowning deeply. He muttered "cowards" under his breath as he tried to think of what to say.

"Kunzite. Is there anything else I should know about these women? Anything the Venusian said? Something that happened before we arrived?" Kunzite looked up at him from a western styles chair in the corner, face hard, chin resting on his bent arm, glaring at the floor. Endymion bit back a scowl as Jadeite's voice filled their link.

_'This is why you talk, not us. Any of us would have our collarbones pinned to the ground at this point.'_

_'Shut up, Jadeite. Or I'll pin you myself. Oh wait. I'm letting Mars do that for me. I forgot.'_

_'And I go pain willingly, in that case, very willingly.' _Jadeite smiled, leaning back. He didn't notice Kunzite glaring move to him.

"As I reported, my first thought was that she was a Metali spy. My questioning was geared toward that then a Senshi. My information, beyond the little I know about her own history, is not useful to the mission." Endymion's eyed him strangely, noting his choice of words.

"Alright, well, then we need to find a way to keep the Senshi occupied while we note their behavior and weaknesses. Not that I expect war, not with them, but we all know now to be prepared. Suggestions, gentlemen?"

"I can observe Mercury while we are assigned to work on the central communications facility. It might not be a bad idea to send out the others on similar missions." Zoisite mused.

"I bet you will 'observe' all sorts of thing, Zoisite." Jadeite quipped, smiling. "I can observe quite well, also."

"Jadeite. I know your opinions are less base than that, so, let's get down to business," Endymion said sharply.

"We know enough about their unique gifts by their titles to be able to think up tasks that sounds like we really need their help to accomplish them. Then we gain the information we need and pack them back off to the moon before they know enough to be a threat to us." Jadeite said, eyes suddenly hard as diamonds, the switch instantaneous. Endymion smiled at him, eyes heavy-lidded, both amused and amazed to this day by that ability.

"And let's be honest," Zoisite countered, "We could use their help, honestly use their help. These are some of the greatest powers in the universe and we have been given the liberty to use them for our advancement. Let's not forget this benefits us."

"We do fine on our own, Zoisite. We do not need to accept spies into our ranks to do it," Nephrite said proudly.

"We cannot trust them with the really important missions." Jadeite looked Endymion in the eye. "You can't be sure they are not looking forward to gathering the information on us, just as we are. Trivial missions should be sufficient."

Endymion nodded, looking around, conceding the point but not convinced.

"But we would be able to watch them, monitor what they could learn. We have much more to gain then they!" Zoisite protested, his voice rose in honest frustration at the waste.

Nephrite and Jadeite went to speak, but Endymion raised his hand.

"Kunzite, what say you?" The other Shitennou looked to their forgotten leader, expressions demanding his vote. He paid them no heed. His head was back and he looking above him, his eyes narrowed in thought.

"We should use our advantage, because it's true: we have more to earn in this venture then they do. But that should not be the focus of any of the missions we send them on; gathering information should be. They know too much, and we too little."

The faces of the other Shitennou were not exactly happy, but each had won enough not to complain.

Endymion shrugged. "All right. I can deal with that. I will try to think of where we could use the help but will be minimally exposing them to sensitive data. I'll also decide which Senshi you will each be working with." He stood, ignoring the hesitation of his men. He kept walking. "And don't worry. I'll keep in mind that you each clearly have a preference on who to, hmm, 'work' with."

Even Zoisite had to smile when Jadeite and Nephrite stood and swept Endymion a low bow.

"Our eternal love and fidelity, my King," Jadeite answered to him.

"Fine you idiots. Sleep. Tomorrow will be a long ride, no matter where I send you. Then you're on guard at all times. Kunzite, walk with me." Wordlessly, the taller man followed. As they exited, Jadeite and Nephrite's detailed pantomime of Mars' seductions faded into background noise, and both men collected their thoughts.

"Friend, something happened with that girl, didn't it?" Endymion began.

"Yes, Master." Kunzite said in a low voice, supplicant.

"What happened?" Endymion asked at once; it was unlike Kunzite to conceal anything from him.

"She knows things about me master. Things I would not have her know."

Endymion raised an eyebrow. "Like?"

"Weaknesses, and how to use them. Like how to get at my temper, when I have worked to hard to bury it. And how to evade my interrogation techniques."

"Do you think it is the psychic one? Do you think they had some knowledge of us before they sent someone?"

Kunzite paused. "I had not thought of that; it is a possibility. But I think it might be something more alarming. I think she is my counterpart on the moon. I think they have trained someone to do the same types of things that I do. Now why would a nation of peace do that?"

"Why indeed, would the Moon need an interrogator, an information manager?"

"Call me what I have had to be Master, a torture expert."

Endymion winced. "I don't forget what you've gone through for me. We all did what had to be done. You are protecting millions, Kunzite. You never use more force than you have to."

"Physically? No." Kunzite left the statement hanging.

"So what do we do? Where do we put her to best find out her real role on the moon and the extend of her training?"

For the first time that night, Kunzite smiled. "Just put her with me, Master. I think I know how. At the capital, tell her we can oversee the defenses being built."

"And the plan? She obviously wants to sleep with you. She makes no pretensions over that. Likely a trick, but she is beautiful. Easily the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, bar one, perhaps. Can you handle that?"

"Oh, I'll take her as a lover. It's too good a chance to get in a woman's head. Always is. I can manage the distraction. I just need to win her confidence. And once I know why they sent the torturer first, I'll act."

"There is something strange between the two of you, Kunzite. I noticed it the first time you two were close. I don't like it. If you feel something is not going according to plan, tell me immediately. We'll improvise." Endymion smiled, a glimmer of his younger self in the reckless expression.

Kunzite inclined his head. "I will go now. Good Night, My King."

"Yes, try to sleep, Kunzite. If she is your counterpart, you will not be able to sleep soundly again till she is gone." He smiled again. Kunzite tried to smile back, the constant jokes about his nature as a demanding lover not forgotten.

But if she was his counterpart, he had an altogether better reason why he would never sleep well.

Her presence meant death.

* * *

OH, it has been a long time. I know. I'm sorry. It just wasn't seeing where I wanted to take this. That's solved, for now. There is even another chapter almost done, so long as I stay focused. But here it is, at long last. Thank you all for sticking with me and for your words of encouragement, especially VO1 for betaing this beast. I would never finish this if your commentary did leave me in fit of giggles.


	9. The End of the World

In no way do I own Sailor Moon, just the plot and an occasional OC.

Additional Disclaimer: This is rated mature for a reason. Please don't read if that bothers you or if it's illegal. That would be awesome.

The pacing of this story is going to change from here on out. Stick with me.

* * *

Built on Shifting Ground

Chapter Nine:

The End of the World

Rei could not think of a place she liked less. Save one.

The land was so cold, so dark; it seemed made for dark magic. The darkness imprinted itself on the faces and moods of the people. No one laughed here, or spared a generous smile; it felt like home in that sense, her old home, except the temperature and color scheme.

She couldn't believe she'd been here three days already; she already had a constant low-level headache to show for it, and weariness in her limbs that came with constant travel and sleeping on the ground.

The first day had been gloriously warm and dazzling in its intensity. She'd been thrown into a saddle before the sun rose, and made the journey side by side with the jovial blond Shitennou. He spend the day singing softly in a language she did not recognize, something which rolled and dipped in ways the official Terrian Language did not. She could sometimes make out the meaning, either from the melody, which his voice did surprising justice to, or from the way his eyes flickered to her, and his smile grew roguish. She shook her head at his antics, finding him slightly less annoying when he wasn't speaking her language.

Of course he had to ruin it all by asking her the one question she'd been unprepared to answer.

"Tell me, Princess, why serve a planet other than your own? Why live abroad, for the good of a foreign people?"

She'd balked at his straightforward approach. And to think that she had been thinking kindly of him...kindly enough.

"I have my reasons, and when you've earned an answer, you'll get one." Her voice was so firm that nothing more need to be said.

He'd come with supplies for days, saying they would stay near enough to a town, in case they needed more, but that he would prefer to not to stop there often. She didn't have much time to ponder that before her attention was completely overtaken by the changes in the landscape. The desert heat began to fade, and the temperature began to suddenly drop and the vegetation grew denser. This lasted only a few hours ride, due north, before that too gave way, with the coming darkness, to frost covered ground.

It was colder than she had ever been. The hard ground was unfamiliar against her feet. There he'd set the first camp.

He'd cooked for her, a soldier's meal, through and through. She ate the heavy portion of meat and grain without comment or expression, not giving him the pleasure of mocking her for 'princess like' behavior. She could see he was all to ready to jump at the first sign of weakness.

Or at least she hoped that was why he looked at her so intently, so quietly. Surely he, who had never been quiet in her presence for long, was just waiting for the right moment to make a remark. That had to be it.

Either way, the intensity unnerved Rei, and made her uncomfortable in his unwilting gaze.

"Oh, what is it?" She asked finally.

Jadeite did not stop staring. "You really are very beautiful." He said calmly. "I had to see you in all lights before I could say it without reservation."

She fought the urge to rage. "I'm so glad," She said icily, "that you have no reservations. But I believe we were not here to observe beauty. I believe we were here to look for something vile." Her eyes flickered to him, pointedly, on the last word. He cracked a smile.

"And so we shall, when we reach our destination. But for tonight, all I have to do is think of you." He smiled charmingly. Rei rolled her eyes.

"Then you can do so alone. I'll pick sleep over you any day." Yet, somehow, Rei couldn't help feeling that wasn't quite true, even as she left, curling up in the makeshift shelter, barely better than the floor. She tugged on her bond to Venus, letting her know she was well, and violently curious about the blonde's well-being. Then she thought about who would be sleeping in a plush bed tonight, no matter who else shared it, and found herself...less concerned.

*

The next day started very much the same: early, on a horse, and on little sleep.

But the landscape changed very quickly now. Before he stopped to give her food, Jadeite led her into a land of ice: everything was coated in it. When she asked if this was the coldest place on Earth, he'd laughed aloud.

"Not nearly. That's where we're going!" Her face dropped so fast, she knew it was comical. She did not, all the same, appreciate his laughter.

The day moved as they did, and he was right; the weather kept getting worse. And the towns they'd begun to see in the distance as soon as they'd exited the worst of the desert again became more and more infrequent.

It was night too soon, and before she knew it, she could barely see where she was riding. Between the darkness and the flack of ice catching on her eyelids, she was fumbling blind, and for the first time, she complained.

"Where are we going?!? Can we at least set up camp? I can barely lead myself in this, never mind the horse!"

His voice called out ahead of her, and she could hear the smile in it. "I was wondering when you'd complain. It's just over this hill. We need warmer clothing and the portable shelter than General Kunzite had with him. We'll buy it in this town."

Sure enough, in moments, they reached the crest of what she had not realized was a low hill until the light from the town came pouring over them when the reached the edge of the valley.

"Welcome to Kira. The end of the world, and of my Kingdom. Beyond this is no-mans land, and the evils which breed in it."

The town was deserted, everyone having taken to their own homes, digging in against the storm outside. Rei wished she with them.

Jadeite rushed into a shop, clearly knowing the town, and came out shortly with two new large bags, he strapped one onto his horse, and the other to hers.

"Into the wilds, beauty. We'll stay near enough the town tonight."

They built camp on the outskirts of the town, the accommodations not really adequately warm, but much better than the ones before. Before she settled into the small structure he'd erected with some quick magic, she walked out to the end of their camp, facing the wilds beyond, the town's edge at her back, reading the energy.

The winds blew much harder, then, sensing an entity. She shuddered against it, digging into her coats. Then she heard it.

The wind was full of voices, whispers, just below the audible realm, for most mortals. But with her gift, they became increasingly clear.

It curved against her flesh in a chorus of icy whispers, full of promises. One to kill her sisters, another her princess, her soulmate, destroy her homeland, her temple, her powers. Everything she could hold dear would be ripped from her, it swore.

"You'll bleed for us, Mars, by someone you love for someone you love. And you won't be able to save anyone." It screamed at her.

Jadeite watched in horror as Rei grabbed at her head, shrieking. He reached her and grabbed her hands, searching for some wound, some mark, some cause for the pain but wasn't surprised to find none of the above. Of course it couldn't be so simple: he could also hear the whispers in the winds, but his senses were not sharp enough to pick up the exact message, only the sentiment, which was overwhelming and malicious.

"Mars," he crooned at her. "Breathe, now Mars. Don't let it into your head. Close your senses. Block it out, please, focus. It cannot hurt you if you don't let it in." He shook her, trying to bring her awareness to her location." Her face tightened, eyes drawn, breathing in quick hisses.

"I'm trying. It's strong. It's very strong, Jadeite." He didn't have time to relish her using his name for the first time, for her breathing was beginning to stabilize. She opened her eyes, taking in him holding her steady, their position, both crouching in the snow, inches deep. She managed a small, grudging smile. "Thank you."

Jadeite smiled, then straightened, pulling his arms away.

"Of course," The whole situation made him uncomfortable. It was not at all the sort of bond he wanted with Mars, camaraderie, trust. Not even close. It was exactly what he had argued with Zoicite about, the dangers of letting the senshi get too close. He would not be the one to weaken toward them, not after being the one to voice that very issue. "I am responsible for you. I would not have it known that I let you come to harm."

Rei frowned at the swift change, but did not comment. He had not referenced protocol before, nor, did she note, had he seemed so disinclined to touch her.

"So what was it?" He asked, voice, sharper, colder than she'd known it could be.

She shook her head. "I couldn't tell, exactly. It overwhelmed me too fast. I'll try again tomorrow, to get a read on, a location perhaps. Or an origin."

She curled up in her bed, thick furs, with a splitting headache and an uneasy mind.

*

The third day started, with her trying to read the landscape as she had promised. It was easier now with the storm quieted, but it was also less effective. She could not trace what she'd encountered last night; it was as though it had come in with the storm, and now that it was through, it was gone too.

"There are only traces left." She told the general, exasperation plain in her voice. "And I can't tell you much, seeing what it did to me last night. It is very dark energy. And it's not exactly..." She struggled for the word. "Native."

"Native?" He asked, very curious about that.

"Well," She traced shapes with her hands in the air, following something he could not see. "It does not mimic the other magic here, in the storm, or in the landscape. The landscape's magic comes in waves, smooth undulating patterns. The storms moves like, like circles, that march after one another. This does none of that. For lack of a better word, it oozes over the landscape, like a mist, or sludge. I've never seen anything like it before. And it leaves traces, on what it touches, a sort of residue."

"How much?"

"Not much, just like a dust casing around the trees, and on the walls of the buildings back there. It is not active. It just sits there, but its power is not gone. It lingers where it flowed."

"Let's look further out, see if it gets clearer, what it is." He said softly. She followed.

The further out they ventured, more signs of strange happenings out in this area were noticed. There was tracks that went nowhere and evaporated into nothingness.

"Someone who can teleport." Rei mused aloud. Jadeite said nothing.

The animals they ran across as the crossed the tundra behaved strangely too, and exhibited abnormal features, as though they had been bred with new traits. The small wildlife showed none of their usual timidness, but instead stared down Rei and Jadeite in a way completely out of character. And when they did dart away, it was so rapid that the pair barely had time to blink before they were gone.

Night fell again, too quickly. He told her it did that, in this part of the world. Long nights. He'd said they needed to stop in town; they'd need more calories out here.

Waiting for him outside the market, she noticed the people watching her with hostility. Surprisingly, she was not the only source of this animosity.

The women whispered as he passed. One even, those very old, and with the courage of age, spit in his path. He barely paused.

She did notice him assess the crowd forming across from the market, and pick up his step.

He was back quickly, but not before the crowd had increased by twenty men. He shouldered the bag of supplies and grabbed her hand.

"We need to move. Now. This could get ugly." She could sense that already, the people were openly hostile, and the feeling seemed to be building.

Words started to get thrown around in the crowd, and as soon as they did, they grew steadily in volume: words like "demons", "cursed", and "enslavers" followed them as he rushed them out of the town.

"I'm doing all I can, Rei, to keep the mood of the crowd calm, but it's escalating too fast. Next time, I'll come later at night."

"Keeping the mood calm?" She asked sharply.

"I have powers over perceptions. I'm trying to have them see us as harmless, elderly travelers. But the glamour is not lasting."

"Why do they hate you so?"

"This is a little more extreme than I'm used to, but I've always been different from them, Rei. I'm a native son, but I do not fit the role."

She grappled with his meaning. He looked down at her, and then away, his jaw tightening.

"I suppose I should just tell you, so that you can run back and tell the council they're right about us, the heathens. They'd find out soon enough." He looked down at her, eyes sharp, observing her. "The people of Earth fear magic. Fear it exceptionally. It has never been used for good here, only for conquest and destruction, for absolute power. People born with magic in them are shunned, shamed, even killed for their gift, in hopes that they will not use it. That way they never hone their abilities and become a threat."

"So, someone like you, like the other Shitennou," She hesitated, leaving out the prince, for the moment, "You are all viewed with extreme suspicion, even hate? By your own people?"

"It's more complicated then that."

"I can follow."

He smiled at that. "Oh, I know you can, my little seer. Following my every word, move, idea, always watching, remembering, noting, with those big dark eyes." She held her tongue, sensing his powers flare in anger. He took a deep breath. "Always looking at me like they do." He inclined his head back to the town, fading into the distance. "Like I'm liable to snap at any moment."

She thought for a moment, "You take that very personally."

"God, women are inanity. Always over analyzing, trying to take the general down inparticular, even when it does not apply." Rei bristled instantly at the gender jab, a sore spot for the princess ruling a nation more patriarchal then Earth.

"Except that our extrapolations are usually right, you arrogant idiot! And I'm right, aren't I? This is personal to you. And you've got a personal problem, which make you angry at my opinion so you make the mistake of generalizing where it does not apply. And since I've gotten here, you've done nothing but make snide comments about women or take the opportunity to reduce me to an object to look at. So, while I'm making guesses, your problem with women, let me guess, since you're such a cliché, you hate your mother?"

Jadeite did not stop smiling, but it got colder, and more pulled by the moment.

"Yes." His voice tight as her bow. "I am such a cliché. I inherited this little gift from her, you see. It runs in the family."

Rei wanted to smile smugly, but there was something open in the tone at the end of his sentence the left her ill at ease.

"So you hate all women because she made the terrible mistake of giving birth to you? Now, while I admit that was a horrible mistake-"

He laughed out loud at her, the sound crueler than the laughs at her expense before.

"No, no, silly girl. I may be a cliché, but even I'm not that stupid. I don't hate for what she did; I hate her for what she didn't do."

"And what was that?" Rei asked, drawn in, despite herself.

"Raise me. I don't hate just women because of her, though, Rei. You're wrong there. You see, Mars, I'm such a cliché that I don't just hate my mother for dying on me." He leaned in really close, too quickly for her to react, and whispered softly in her ear. "I hate my father too, for killing her."

He walked ahead of her into the darkness, playing with a lighter before starting the fire. Rei stood still in stunned silence before following him tentatively to make camp.

*

They spent that night, and the next day in silence. The tracked down one humanoid creature, looking for a clue to what was going on in the outland. But the creature had been modified, and had no voice box, so it was incapable of telling tales. It was no use alive.

Rei kept stealing glances at him, seriously confounded by his story. She wondered, part of her, how much he knew about her, if this was an attempt to gain her sympathy. If it was, she feared it was working.

She had a hard time, now, not looking at him with pity, and with questions. Who was his mother? What happened to his father? How did he become what he was now, out of a family so afraid of magic?

Once the light faded from the sky, and they had examined the corpse of the creature fully, taking notes and samples back for Ami and Zoisite, they returned to camp.

She changed into more layers, before meeting him out by the fire, where he was silently roasting meat and turning flat fry breads on a heated rock. While he had the distraction of food to focus on, Rei found the silence deafening.

"My mother is a ghost, a ghost who breathes and eats." Rei said slowly.

Jadeite looked up, watching the fire play across her cheekbones in a caress. "What?"

She looked up now, meeting his eyes. "My mother is shell of a woman. She has no spirit. She died long before I was born. My father killed her, too." He waited, watching her slow change of expression from careful focus to the familiar face of old pain, the hollow distance in the eyes and the blank cold expression. "She was magnificent, I've been told, when she was young. The most beautiful, the most vivacious and dazzling, my nursemaid would say. And she was chosen for my father's queen for those qualities. But while the most beautiful was certainly what he wanted, the most spirited was certainly not."

"They were unhappy, then." Jadeite stated, remembering the few, short years before he'd first shown his potential, before the incident in the garden.

"No. Not in my memory. He'd broken her before she had me. Beaten her, raped her, shamed her before the court until she barely spoke at all, and certainly caused no trouble for him. It was into such a home that I was born."

"Why tell me this?" Jadeite asked, suddenly on guard.

"It is an offering, an exchange, for telling me your story. It's only fair. Perhaps I just needed something to say, and there is hardly a follow up to your last declaration which would be fitting. This is the closest I can get."

"You're trying to make me feel like we're the same somehow, like we're friends, like we can share all our secrets now, like I can tell you every little thing, right Mars, about me, and my friends and my planet."

"No," she said simply. "I am not trying to make anything exist which doesn't. You asked me once why I am so content to serve a planet other than my own. Well, herein lies your answer: I feel little desire to remain in the palace, seeing a walking, breathing reminder of what took my mother's life."

Jadeite kept silent, finding no easy comeback.

"I knew my mother before I lost her." he said finally. "She was always special. She moved differently, like her limbs were lighter as she floated through the house. She always took me with her places. But she never exhibited explicit magic. Her magic just made her more beautiful rather than powerful. I don't think she believed she had real magic in her. It was a shock to her too, the first time I could not reach something I wanted on a top shelf, and I was so focused on wanting it, that it floated down to me." He stopped, face blank.

"Did your father know?" Rei asked. It was like watching a tragedy, seeing the inevitable approach, deadly and terrible. Only this was real; this was his origin.

"No. No idea. He'd begun to dislike her, after he'd married her, when all the men who had been his rivals would not stop looking at her. He always claimed she provoked it. When he saw me move the object without touching it, he turned on her. He told her that she was a monster, and that she made his only son a monster, too. He claimed she bewitched men to look at her, and that she had doomed me to life as an outcast. " He swallowed. "Then he said that his line would end because of her, and grabbed the knife. She ran. It was like watching an angel fall, when she slipped on a rock in the brook, all fair and light. He caught her then. I watched him kill her."

Rei felt her own heart ache; she tugged back. He looked up at her.

"He never told me what happened, or why, just told me to never use magic, ever. He went to prison for life, for killing her. He could have gotten out of it easily by saying he had been bewitched, by offering me up as proof of her bad blood. But they might have killed me then, as they often do with children of my sort; he wanted his line preserved at all costs. So I was given to a nearby school to be raised there as a ward of the state. When the war came, I left, for a chance. I picked the one place my powers were welcomed, by my King's side. And that is why I am not welcome here, Mars. Because they remember that I was one of them, and that I am also what they hate."

His pain was so clearly radiating off of him, that she was both repelled and drawn in by it. That was always the case, she reminded herself. Her gift made her more sensitive to emotions. She felt, as she always did, the need to lessen their pain to reduce her own.

She stood, and sat next to him, and took his hand, and held it in both of hers.

"I'm hungry. Is that done yet?" He blinked twice, before the lazy, teasing smile she was become so fond of crept over his mouth.

"So this is what the affection is for, huh, feeding you?" She smiled, and nodded. He handed her the fry cake and cut off a few hunks of meat, placing them in the wrap. "At least you're honest about it."

"Hey," she said, moments and a bite later. "This is better than last night. You were holding out."

"I picked up better meat. The town was better stocked."

"Sure it was. I bet you had the same thing last night and gave me the cheap stuff."

"I should have; I would have eaten better. I'll remember that tomorrow." Rei smacked his arm, causing him to hiss something about ungrateful.

The playful banter went on for some time.

*

The next day was almost too much fun to be a mission. He spent the day teasing her on her snow mobility, which was limited, and regaling her with stories of his hometown, some miles south and east of here.

He continued to tell her about the spring festivals where women brought out the pigments that they used to dye cloth and would create patterns of color in the town center, an offering for the new harvest, all while wrestling a mutated wolf into submission. It had, from their examinations, been breed with a type of non-native plant, something which caused it to have sickly green skin, and which left Jadeite with ugly red welts on the exposed skin of his face. Rei took great delight in that.

He was so cross that they went back to camp early so he could attempt to properly wash off the oils on his skin that caused the rash.

The attempts at washing it were, logically, as ineffective as rubbing snow on it had been. Rei watched in amusement, for longer than was kind, before offering to burn off the poison.

"What? I'm not going to kill you out here. Even if I might have thought about it, we both know that's not possible. We're accountable for each other, so let me help. I've done this before." He still looked skeptical. "Look, this is probably heat sensitive, most oils are. They evaporate under extreme heat. Lucky for you, my touch can superheat."

"You know what else evaporates under extreme heat, Rei? Skin! Skin does!"

"It won't, my heat only attacks what I ask it to. So come here already." Sullenly, he sat before her, and she moved her hand to his face, smile smugly. Then her face was completely focused.

He tried not to think about it as it suddenly got hot, very, very hot, very, very close to his face. Just when the pain became unbearable, it ceased, and her hands lifted.

"God, you could have killed me like that! Burned my damn face off! I'm not even sure it's better, I just can't feel anything because my skin is numb."

Rei scoffed. "Not likely. I've had to do this before in a pinch, when no healers were around. Consider yourself lucky. Now let me make sure I got it all, just for your peace of mind. Hold still."

She held his face in her hands, tilting it up, so she could see his neck properly.

"Alright," she said, releasing her grip. "You look fine. Everything is back to normal. "

She found herself lingering for a moment, kneeling in front of him, too close, far too close. The thought of what her position was good for made her flush, and cross. She went to stand hastily, when a hand stopped her, pulling her close.

In her own thoughts, she'd missed the changes in his expression, the way he watched her touching him, so comfortable, until she stopped to think about it. He noted, ever the womanizer, the hesitation in moving away from him, and the following flush, which indicated an opportunity. He reached for her, the moment she moved, sending them both to the ground.

She inhaled sharply, but did not move. He took in her hair and eyes, dark and liquid heat in the light from the fire.

He took her face in his hands gently, but kissed her with no reservations. And it was like being burned again, but he couldn't stop. She was warm, so warm. She whimpered against him as he flicked his tongue against hers, before pulling back into a more chase kiss, making her mew unhappily, before his teeth caught her lower lip in his, tugging lightly. Her mouth opened fully then, which he took every advantage of. It wasn't long enough, in his opinion, before she pulled back.

He was not giving up already.

His lips merely took in the newly exposed skin of her neck as she arched away from him.

"Enough," she said shakily. "Please, enough."

He unwillingly pulled back. His hands replaced his lips, tracing the lines of her neck and jaw. "Now, what? Will you back off again? I won't hear you laugh or see you smile, is that how this goes?"

Rei struggled for breath. He was overwhelming. Hands, lips, questions. Consuming, insatiable, always demanding more from her.

"We can't exactly go further, can we?"

"We certainly can. We're quite alone, and we will remain so until you say you've seen enough to evaluate the problem." His lips dipped to her neck again.

"They would know," she said simply.

"Who?" He asked her skin, trying to expose more skin, hiding in the collar of her coat.

"My senshi. My princess. My queen. These things leave signs on the spirit. Signs they would know."

Jadeite felt the sting of rejection coming. "You wouldn't be the only one."

Rei stiffened. "Oh yes. You all will try to get access to one of us." She looked at him, with an expression so cold the world outside seemed warm. "That's why you've done this. This is your plan, then, to make a play for me, in the open at least. Gain our confidences with tragic tales, seduce us, woo us, and then, what? Find out all our secrets?" She laughed at that, shrill.

"You can't be serious?" Jadeite said, trying to keep his voice perfectly indigent, but it faltered ever so slightly when he considered his plans coming out here, which may not have been seduction (though it had crossed his mind), but were certainly to get information, and by any means.

Rei noticed. "You were planning this." She said, but her voice still held more pain than she wanted to show. "This was all planned. All a ruse. Let's do one more scan tomorrow, then I want to go back to the capital. I want to see my sister, to tell them not to be deluded by false kindness."

"I did nothing false here, with you, Rei. Nothing except try to repel my own feelings for you, because you're right. I hoped--I planned to find out what I could from you. But I never planned to find you beautiful, intriguing, and ridiculously funny and companionable. I didn't expect to care. It's not what I do, Rei. I'm not good at it. So I'm sorry if it hurts you to hear this, but I will be honest with you. Nothing I feel for you is a ploy, or a game. Nothing we shared is a lie."

"But it was. I never would have felt anything for you if I had believed you capable of this."

"Did you not? Did you really not, Rei? Be serious! You were out here for all the same reasons I was, to complete a mission and get some info. You know who I am, what I am. Don't be furious at me for that."

"I'm not furious. I feel nothing. I feel nothing because you're right, this was never about feelings, this was about the mission and what we could get out of one another.

Oh, and I hope you enjoyed what out got out of me. You'll never get any more. We finish this mission and leave."

And with that, she left him alone in the firelight.

*

Her temper had cooled somewhat by morning, having replayed the scene again and again in her head. He was right; she wasn't on any higher ground than he was, but that didn't mean she was willing to give in, lean back, and spread her legs.

It just couldn't happen, not out here, not when they had a mission to finish, and especially not when she had just raked Minako over the coals for the exact same thing. But still, it was hard denying the chemistry that had erupted during the last week. The smoldering way he looked at her, as if her body wasn't hidden in layers of shapeless coats, was slightly addictive. So many men looked her that way--at her legs, breasts, hips--she was used to that. This was something so much more.

She kept her mouth shut and her head down, just as he'd predicted. But to her surprise, two were playing that game. He too remained eerily silent throughout their work, exchanging nothing more than the necessary requests, questions, and commands.

Two more days passed in uneventful observation, and a very loud silence.

The third day promised to be just as uninteresting until late in the afternoon, when they saw a white flash on the horizon. Jadeite looked to Rei and nodded. Their transformations were instantaneous, and they raced toward the object. Taking a chance, Mars sent a debilitating charm against evil ahead of her. If this thing meant to do them harm, it would buy them a few seconds before it could transport away.

Sure enough, the figure dropped to the ground in pain. In a flash, Jadeite was ahead of her, with the figure, holding it in place. She caught up with him, amazed at this new show of power, and took in this new enemy.

The young woman before them had short dark hair, cut sharply against a pale, pretty face. She seemed unremarkable in every sense, except that Mars could feel the power rolling off of her.

"You're one of the magic born," Jadeite said swiftly. "As are we. We are the same; we mean you no harm if you mean us none. Tell us, what are you doing out here alone?"

The girls remained absolutely still in the energy cuffs Jadeite had her in, his hand gripping the back of her neck.

Mars tried to hear the words her mind was shouting at him, as she could sometimes when the message was very clear.

"Do you know who we are?" Mars asked, thinking she'd heard right.

The girl glared at her.

"The reason I was sent out to this gods-forsaken place," the girl said coldly.

"Sent, by whom?" Jadeite asked sharply.

The girl smirked. "Someone more powerful than you. Someone whose questions I answer."

"You are familiar. We know each other." Jadeite said aloud, looking for her reaction, not an answer. And he got one, as the girl twisted ever so slightly to hide her eyes.

She did not answer, but Mars could hear her shout it proudly. It made sense, how she'd known him; she carefully did not name her master but said only "Metali."

"The Metali banner?"

The smaller girl glared up at Mars. 'Mind Reader?'

Mars said nothing. The girl's eyes narrowed. 'Of course.'

Knowing then that her cover was blown, Mars spoke aloud to Jadeite. "She served in your King's court once. She is a deserter of your prince."

"Ah," Jadeite sneered. "The left over rubble of the fallen princes, picking a losing house again. And to what end?"

"She says that her master is not dead, nor defeated. And that only a fool would stay under a banner that subjugates you to those weaker."

"So this had been their work. They are who send you out here, what, to experiment on the wildlife?" Jadeite smiled. The girl scuffed at him, and Mars worked very hard to hear her.

"She, and her kind, they've been attacking the locals. They want to create unrest against their own kind."

Jadeite was incredulous. "Why? That will only make it worse for you."

"Not when we defeat you, after they take you down for us!" The girl shouted joyously. Jadeite's eyes flickered, and then the girl's neck was broken in his hands.

"We need to get back to the capital immediately."

Rei looked at the girl at his feet breifly. "That bad?"

He nodded. "The people were so hostile the night after the storm. They had been attacked by people of magic...It all makes sense!"

She followed him. "This is their new tactic. The energy carried in the storm, the hostility, it produces hate towards you, your King's house, toward anyone of magic. That's why the anger in the town was worse, even worse than what you're used to."

"And the people carrying it out for the Metali are people with magic. They've been made promises; they think that after we're gone, they can take over. It's clearly what she meant about not being subjugated.

He stopped and thought a moment. "But why would she think it possible? There aren't enough of us, and certainly not enough people of magic to take down my King's armies and then subdue the average citizen. Not unless they have something we don't know about. Something to make them this careless." He looked at her. "Which is why we need to get back straightaway. I normally wouldn't do this, since it has a nasty side effect of leaving us both immobilized with exhaustion for a day, but we need to get back to the capital now. Will you take my arm?"

She looked at him warily. "That little trick you pulled earlier to get to the girl..."

"Yes, but on a bigger scale." He smiled a little at her then, and even the slight warmth after the constant silent reproach made her heart stutter. "Come on, pretty thing, grab on."

She smiled at him then; he was infectious. "I'm talking to you again, if this means you are talking to me."

He smiled at her pettiness. "Of course, if it means you'll be touching me again." His smile widened at her, and she sighed, shaking her head in disbelief. But she took his arm.

"I'm taking that as a yes, Rei. And we have plenty of time before your queen arrives, since you've realized I was right."

"We were both right," she corrected him quickly. "That's all."

"If you say so," he said, non-committing. "But even if we're both right, you and I have very little talking to do." Then he closed his eyes, and her world turned black.

*

When she opened her eyes, she moaned at the beauty of walls, real walls!

"All right there, Rei?" Jadeite asked, leaning over her bed, a lazy smile playing on his lips.

"You tell me." She quipped, rolling her neck slightly to alleviate the soreness.

"You seem fine. She seems to think so, too." He inclined his head to Ami, who sat in a chair in the corner, clearly watching their familiarity with interest. "Seems your energy helps in the process. You've only been out a few hours."

" Ami. We've got plenty to talk about."

Ami stood and took Rei's hand. "Actually, you've got some free time today. I'm going to go over your notes, which Jadeite gave me when you arrived."

Rei looked at Jadeite wryly. "You made sure I was free." He smiled in response. "Thought so. Did you relay the last encounter to your King? Aren't you needed to plan what to do with that information?"

"No. It seems that there have been some disturbances this last week that are more pressing. As soon as that is sorted out, we can figure out how our experience figures in. Tomorrow, at the soonest, Zoisite assures me."

Rei rolled her eyes, and turned to Ami. She noticed Ami blushing, and frowned, but made a mental note to ask later. "So, am I free to go then, Ami?"

"Absolutely. I think Jadeite would show you to your room." Ami glanced at him, a slight smile momentarily present, then an easy calm. "The rooms are comfortable. It's been a mostly quiet. And Minako has been lenient this week; you should see her when she comes in for dinner."

Rei nodded, and reluctantly took Jadeite's arm. "I'll see you later, too."

*

The journey up from the medical room was a quiet one. Too quiet.

She should have stopped him, she thought, as his arm wrapped around her waist, after looking down the corridor and finding no one. She should have stopped him when his hand began to brush up and down her hip to the pattern of their steps. She should have shook off his gesture when his head dipped down to nuzzle into the curve of her neck.

She should have, but she didn't. It sealed her fate.

It didn't stop her from playing with him.

He opened the door to her room, off the main room that lead to the four suites for the Senshi. She stepped in and a few moments later, heard the door latch.

"Are we going to play games now, Rei? Or are we going to be honest?" He looked at her as if he had a choice. Novice.

"You assume just because we're in a bedroom, I'll go quietly?"

He smiled, leaning into the doorway. "I should hope not quietly."

She looked up from under her lashes, eyes flustered ever so slightly. "Tell me why I should? Tell me in such a way that I'll actually be sure for two whole seconds.'

"Good arguments first, or bad ones?"

Rei hated that she smiled. "Let's get the bad ones out of the way first."

"We're alone."

"Not at all a unique argument. I can easily counter: we're alone; let's play cards."

He nodded, conceding the point. "Everyone else is doing it?"

She raised an eyebrow at that. "Everyone is? What do you mean, everyone?"

"Come on, Rei. When I say something, I mean it. _Everyone_ is getting laid. Even Zoisite is getting laid. That never happens."

"I don't care that your other generals are, what bearing does that have on me?"

"Well, the ones who are getting them laid are your Senshi."

Rei's jaw dropped. "Ami? Even Ami?" He nodded, smiling widely. "That traitor."

"It's a better argument now, isn't it?" He asked, slinking up to her and reaching for her waist with one hand.

"Alright, better, but not perfect." But already, she was leaning into his touch.

"Okay," He murmured, kissing her jaw, letting his hands seal around her lower back, gently pulling her against him. "How about, it's inevitable."

Rei felt herself shudder at the words. "Worse than the last." She distracted herself, letting her hands slide up the bottom of his shirt, tracing the lines below. It was effective.

"Alright." He was pulling off her blouse now, "How about, I want you." He pulled back to look at her hands, letting her look there too. "And you want me."

She looked up at him. Their eyes challenged one another. "This is the only argument you'll ever win."

He kept his eyes locked with hers. "Fine. I'll take that."

They lunged for one another.

She pulled of his shirt roughly, unwilling to let it be an obstacle later. He had her bra off in seconds.

He pulled her up toward him, lips demanding her full attention. His hands brushed at her nipples with surprising, light caresses, such a departure from the way his mouth attacked hers. Bites and pressure contrasted with the feel of rough knuckles slowly moving against her, outlining the swell of her breast, up to her nipple and back down.

"More," she said breaking off. His lips trailed to her jaw. She felt him smile.

He was there too fast for her to register, biting the undersides of her breasts, moving quickly, rolling his tongue over one nipple, while the other rolled a hard peak between his thumb and forefinger. She looked down, wanting to watch. He was smiling up at her, breast still in his mouth.

Rei knew it. She was selfish, especially as a lover. But she was also vindictive, and that, if nothing else, meant she'd give him his for smirking up at her like that.

She grabbed his hair, yanking him up to where her lips could meet his. He grunted slightly, meeting her aggression with pleasure.

She roughly undid the buckles on his pants, hoping her careless touch hurt. He traced her spine with two firm fingers, thumb and index, stopping at the indentations at the base of her back, getting a grip. Rei shivered. She dropped to her knees, quickly escaping his grasp. She grabbed him firmly. Jadeite jumped as she mimicked his gesture, running two fingers firmly down the back of his shaft, following the vein.

"Play nice." He hissed as she fisted the head.

"Oh, but doesn't it feel," She swirled her tongue around the tip, "_nice?_"

"Good." His muscles curled convulsively in as she took him deeper, "Fuck, it feels _so_ good." He put a hand in her hair, twirling into a rope for leverage, "But not nice...not even...close." He thrust in, loving the sound of her slight choke and the fact that she looked up at him defiantly, and took him deeper still. He all but crumpled.

Jadeite knew this had to change. He stepped away from her, pulling her to her feet with a tug on her hair. "No more playing."

He pushed her onto the bed they'd somehow never made it to. Her pants came off in a fluid motion, and he angled his head so that his open mouth could lead a straight line of teeth-marks from the top of her ribcage down to her stomach, and further to either side of her clit, his hot breath making her buck against him even before his tongue touched her. She moaned, unabashed, writhing as he slipped two fingers slowly into her.

"No." Rei breathed harshly. She felt him increase his pace to match the spasms of her body. "No more playing."

He pulled back, observing her. "Tell me you want me. I've never wanted anyone more than you." He pressed his lips to her hipbone, "_Tell me you want me_."

She was silent. He broke away from her, standing, and stopped, looking at the hand gripping his wrist.

"What do you want?" she whispered.

He looked at her as if she were crazed. "You. This. More." He held her face in his other hand. "Everything about you."

She held his eyes; hers confrontational, searching, defiant. "Then I can say it." She hooked a leg around his waist, pulling him back. She smiled. "I want you. Right now."

She didn't have to wait, as he pushed her back to the bed. Her nails dug into his sides, and her moan escalated into a shout as he entered her.

Jadeite had never heard anything so hot, or felt anything so good. He tried to slow down, knowing they'd already been close to coming. "God, you're so warm. Fuck." He felt himself failing.

Rei arched, biting her palm as he lifted one of her legs from his side, crossing it over his chest to rest on his opposite shoulder. His eyes closed. Now each thrust unerringly spread the sparks from her fingertips to thoughout her blood. "Harder."

He obliged. She turned her head to look at how his arm muscles were tensing. She returned her gaze to his face, where his face was rigid and his eyes were tight.

"Please." She said, feeling the sparks settling to where her body met his, "Please. More. Look at me."

He did, and his eyes were as tortured as they had been by the firelight when he spoke of his past. Rei felt something unfamiliar well up in her with the sparks: a desire to give comfort to him.

A desire to give.

She wrapped a hand around his neck, bringing his face down to hers. She kissed him so gently it almost hurt. "You want me. And I'm here. I'm right here." She said, "Be here with me."

He let her leg go, pulling her up close to him, forehead to forehead, and thrust faster, eyes unable to take in enough of hers. Rei felt it, all at once, the sparks ignited, turning her flesh to liquid. She kept her eyes stubbornly open, staring into his, as her breath caught in a strangled halting cry. His slammed shut as his own orgasm came in erratic jerks that kept hers going in waves.

"Rei." He said, softly, a caress. She instinctively pulled his head down to her neck, for once enjoying a man's weight on her body. She liked his heaviness.

"Jadeite."

*

He left her hours later when he felt Endymion summon him. They didn't say anything else, but a strange tenderness underlaid the way they moved together, twice more, before he had to leave. He would always swear there was nothing that had made him stand in awe the way she had made him, with her eyes open, looking into him as she came.

It was this thought that remained with him as he slipped quietly into the main meeting room off of the King's chambers.

"My King." He bowed reverently.

Endymion looked up from his papers, taking him in. "Welcome, Jadeite. You look remarkably well for the news in these papers." Jadeite recognized his own writing in the King's hand. "Let me guess. Your conquest plans were, despite the danger, or because of it, successful."

Jadeite lowered his head. "Not exactly." He ran a hand through his hair at the base of his neck, feeling the sweat there. "It was no conquest. At least, not mine."

"Hers?" Endymion asked, his eyes lighting with amusement that didn't reach his mouth.

Jadeite frowned at him. "No. Not that exactly, either." He shifted, "Perhaps it was mutual. Can conquest ever be called that? I'll have to ask Kunzite his opinion."

"Well, his view may be changing too." Endymion said sagely, and shook his head at Jadeite's inquiring gaze. "Later. I've read most of your report and have had Zoisite and Ami look over it as well. It seems consistent--the energy patterns you've picked up--with what they've been researching. It is good to definitively know that that energy is connected to Metali and some plan they've concocted to use magic-born people. It explains some of the damage, and perhaps some deflection. We still don't know how far reaching this plan is and how many have joined them. I think that's what we need to work on now."

"Yes, Master. I'm assuming that a plan has already been made."

"Correct. I'll have you four investigate this personally. I want records on the magic-born searched. I want censuses conducted to see how many have left their families and hometowns. I want to know how many are disappearing. I want to know what is giving the Metali the kind of power they have. Start in the morning."

"Of course. Anything else?" Endymion looked him up and down. He smiled.

"No. Except I think I should like to know her better before you propose. You have that look in your eye that you get before doing something incredibly impulsive. I'm sure she's worth it, but give it a few days."

Jadeite smiled crookedly. "That bad?"

"Terrible. You didn't leave her bedside for more than twenty minutes to give me this report before you skittered back. And only over exhaustion! It was pretty clear, and I'm happy for you. You really couldn't do better. No one can. Well, short of whoever gets her princess. Congratulations to you both. Dismissed."

Jadeite bowed and consciously forced himself to his study to work on Endymion's request, despite the pull of the dark-eyed Senshi in his bed.

*

It had been ten short days since he'd met her; he mused during training this morning. He felt off balance, thinking of it that way, knowing that she was all he'd though of all morning, as Nephrite came at him with a sword. Instinct kept his limbs intact, but his focus was hardly up to par. Remarkably, none of the others commented.

They meet with Endymion afterwards. He would be dispatched in two days or sooner; Endymion had them scouring records. They would go to oversee the censuses, each to his own province. It would mean the end of this arrangement with the Senshi.

He found himself at Rei's door.

She answered without pause and drew him into her arms. He immersed himself in her, feeling her, breathing in her lily and incense scent.

"I'm leaving tomorrow or the next day," he announced without ceremony.

"Is it about the disturbance?"

He pulled back to look at her. "Are you talking about the deserters?"

"From whose camp?"

"Explain what you mean."

"The attempt to enter the capital. The area is covered with energy like the one we saw out in the wilds."

He calmed. "Yes. Yes, Endymion mentioned it. I didn't guess you'd be able to pick up on it so quickly."

"You're worried."

"Things are bad out there. And I now that I have something to come home to, I'd like to be able to."

"You'll make it back." Her hand curled into his hair, her expression cool.

"Comfort or vision?"

"Just a feeling. I'll see you again. I can always feel when I'll never see someone again." She looked away.

"Who was it?"

"My mother. He won't let me see her now. He doesn't approve of me associating with the women's courtiers, now that I've been chosen for a life outside them."

He brushed his lips to her forehead. "I want you as you are, as you choose to be. _You_ are what I want. Not some idea of you. I've been with ideas, and I rather like reality. It's so much more..." He pulled her hips against his, "solid."

*

Another day spent in bed would have suited him just fine, but the day had other intentions for him.

It was just short of dusk when Rei sat up, her body rigid. Moments before, she had been nestled comfortably in the crook of his neck as she told him stories of her temple.

"Rei? What is it?" Her face was too blank for him to feel safe.

"They're here."

He was already transformed, ready to move to Endymion. "Who? Who is here? Where?"

"At the gates. They cannot pass to borders."

"Persons of magic. Messengers? Emissaries?"

"Both. And neither. You master can sense it. Go. My sister and I will follow. I believe she's here too."

He didn't stop to ask.

*

He joined his king and Kunzite just inside the gate. Nephrite followed momentarily. Then Zoisite.

The Senshi arrived as one, behind Zoisite by a few minutes.

"Is it an enemy?" Endymion asked them all.

Mars shook her head. "No. Both have very pure energy. One I believe I recognize, but it is still too unclear through the barrier for me to tell for sure. Their energy is similar."

"I am holding you accountable if I open this gate to an enemy, Senshi."

Venus looked to Mars only momentarily before answering. "Of course. Go ahead."

The gate opened and flashed a bright blue as the protective barrier, usually unseen, was lifted.

Kunzite and Nephrite flinched at the image, so ominous in both their homelands: the riderless horse.

The horse reared up at the new figures and weapons were drawn.

"Wait!" Endymion shouted. The Shitennou and Senshi held their position at the sheer power in his command. "I know this energy. Look!"

At that moment, the horse reared up and took flight into the palace walls.

"My god." Zoisite said, watching the creature barrel directly towards the inner most pavilions.

At that moment, a previously unseen smaller figure approached. The figure pushed back its hood, shaking out dark curls.

"My mistress comes," she said simply.

Mars felt her heart bottom out. She heard Venus draw in breath sharply beside her.

"No. She can't. How could you let her come alone, Luna?!" Venus exploded in anger.

The woman blinked. "She would not be stopped. It was safer that I went on her powers first to see if anyone would attack her. They did not, and this way, she can enter and find refuge here, if the King here, Endymion, will give her welcome."

"Whoever asks for my hospitality in friendship shall have it. Who is you mistress?"

"Princess Serenity of course. She comes now."

With sudden moments, her hands extended to her forehead, cupping the crescent moon there. A light extended out from the mark, and from the bright clear beam, the petite body of a woman began to form. In moments, the familiar shape of the royal house's gown and the hairstyle of choice came into view. Then, at last, the two eyes opened and bright blue took in the scene. The princess smiled.

Endymion dropped the blue barrier again. The princess' smile dropped too as above them the sound of a child screaming issued forth.

* * *

Sorry for the wait. It always seems to take me longer that I anticipate to write. At least this time I have a nice, long offering to show for it. I hope you enjoyed the change of pace. Special thanks to everyone who reviewed, without whom, this would never get written. Finally, thank you most of all to VO1, who Beta-ed this fatty. You're wonderful and you make me laugh.


	10. Stories Left Untold

Standard disclaimers apply. Another disclaimer needs to be applied to. This has only be very roughly edited but I have not had time to edit it never mind write anything new. So many of you messaged me for more of this story, though, that I thought it was not right to keep a basically written chapter from you. I have started another chapter but this chapter of my life keeps getting in the way. There is more to come, though. Thank you for your support and interest. On that note, I hope you can enjoy it, mistakes and all. I know Ami will ;)

Love,

Goldnhearts

* * *

Ami had a hard time not beaming.

Life was so much more than it had been up to now for the water princess.

Ami had always considered herself a fairly content person. She had so much more than most would ever have. She had any luxury she could ask for, a supportive family, friends she would give her life for and who would give theirs for her, a purpose for being, and access to knowledge only known by the few and the great. So it surprised her greatly to feel a sense of giddiness and longing mingled into her daily life.

That was for Minako, Serenity, and Matoko to sigh over, while she and Rei exchanged resigned looks. Yet, Ami suspected that Rei shared her secret curiosity at what made them giggle and sigh. But unlike Rei, it was not something Ami had ever had designs on. Rei had had lovers, had sought out what the other three longed for, like Matoko had, had attempted to find something magic. Only Ami and Minako had been unsuccessful in finding worthy admirers. While Matoko stayed optimist, the unfulfilling pursuits had left Rei something of a cynic when the others discussed love. Ami wondered which camp to join.

Ami, therefore, with the fervor with which she pursued all knowledge, researched the matter. She'd read all the science of the day on the chemicals in attraction, in bonded pairs, in the deviations from the average couples and those deemed soulmates, which researchers could still not understand. When that had not been satisfying, she'd read all the great love stories she could find time for in between training, and, now and then, some of the very bad ones.

She concluded, based on her research, that she was simply not the romantic type.

This last week threw all of that into disarray. She should have known Venus, once she noticed the change in her, would not let up about the anomalous reactions she had to one of the Shitennou. What she had not realized was that the Shitennou did not let up either and was unerringly charming and remarkable.

She'd ridden with him, the day they journeyed back to the capital, to get brought up to speed on their work with the transporter. She'd been surprised to see the tell-tale signs of attraction on his face, and wondered how much of it was mirrored on her own. His pupils dilated when he looked at her, he sought chances and reasons to touch her, helping her from her horse, for example, and he directed his body towards hers at all time, even when not speaking.

Matoko and Minako noticed too, even engrossed as they were with their own flirtations. Minako, who was, to her obvious annoyance, making less headway than Matoko, paid more attention to Ami's interactions with the man.

Ami tried to avoid assessing her own response to him too closely. She knew better than to overanalyze. She'd spent hours with Minako listening to her think herself into love. And it had never done Minako any good to get herself involved with men she had no future with. She remembered a request Minako had made, and got to work.

"General..."

"Zoisite." He corrected quickly, "Just Zoisite, please. We'll be working together for some time. Let's part with formalities."

She smiled, a little flustered. "Alright, Zoisite. Then you may call me just Ami." He nodded in reply "Now, I have a few initial questions."

"Ask away. I'll answer what I can."

"Well, I'm being sent to help you reconstruct you interplanetary transport, correct?"

"Correct."

"Then, will I be seeing much of my fellow Senshi or will we be apart while at the capital?"

"Ah. I believe you'll be able to meet up, most days, for at least dinner. Other meals, we may miss each other. But Endymion likes to have one group meal to catch up with the days progress, so I'm sure you'll see one another. I believe you will be housed near one another too, if I know Kunzite. He's very careful about details like that."

"And what about Rei? Do you think we'll have any contact with her? Endymion told her she would be out of range."

Zoisite hesitated. "I'm not fully briefed on her mission with Jadeite. But I do remember that it is unlikely that they'll be in contact. They're going out to the wilds."

"Zoisite." Endymion called from in front of them.

"I'll see you later." He said briskly, but with a smile, and rode forward to join the king.

Only later proved to be a long time coming. She didn't see him the next day.

Which was fine by her, she told herself. She, like Minako and Matoko, was exhausted from the entire day spent traveling. She spoilt herself with extra hours in bed, something Minako would never allow back on the moon. But then, she noted, Minako had taken the chance to sleep in too. She was sure she'd be told to get to the training grounds here at six the next morning. She wondered if she should remind Minako to ask for the right to use some of their facilities here.

She didn't have to wonder long.

"Gooooooood Morning, Ami, my lovely friend!" Minako said, dancing into the room.

"Good morning, Minako." Ami said, wondering to what she owed the energy of the greeting. Matoko strolled in a few steps and a few levels of intensity behind Minako.

"Morning." Matoko smiled, rolling her eyes at Minako.

Ami smiled back, "Morning, Matoko."

"So, Ami, what info do you have on Rei? Did Zoisite give up anything good?"

"No. He looked a little uncomfortable when he talked about it. Said that he did not have full information."

Minako frowned slightly. "Well, I know she's okay. She tugged on our bond last night. She was well. Tired, but well. And a little bitter."

They nodded at one another, silence slipping in.

"So..." Matoko started, "Why are you so happy, Minako? You were in your room all last night. And does anyone else feel a little off to be so sedentary?"

"I know what you mean." Ami said, stretching, "Out with it, Minako, you'll tell us anyways."

Minako just smiled, "I just have a feeling I'm going to make progress today. I can just feel it!"

Matoko smiled, "And hopefully you will feel it. I would laugh till I peed if his is small. Just because there has been so much hype from you."

Minako waved her off. "It will be amazing. I'm me."

Ami sat up straighter as something delightful caught her attention. "Oh, sweet Selene. They sent us coffee."

"And hopefully breakfast." Matoko said with glee, opening the door when the knock arrived, "How you could tell at that distance that coffee was coming is just frightening to me, Ami. Frightening."

She explored with the other two that day, trying to get the lay of the land. The palace's construction differed from the moon's. It was built in square, with concentric squares, each bigger then the last, like boxes stacked in boxes. It was terraced on a hill, so that the inner most square was the highest in height, and the other descended down from there, so that each level got maximum light. The inner most square was for the monarch and their immediate family alone, and from there out the tier in which you dwelled was assigned by rank.

They had been assigned to the third tier, quite an honor, they overheard the maids chattering about curiously. Apperantly their identities were not public information.

The Shitennou occupied the tier above theirs, which Ami noted was more for protection than for rank. Ami seemed to remember the highest guard or generals being in the third tier when she'd read reports by former senshi reconnaissance on the palace. She imagined that when the royal family had been bigger, other wives and lower ranked children would have lived in the second tier. She supposed it made more sense to have the guard closer to the monarch than to hold ceremony and have an empty tier between the king and his protectors. It was certainly what she would have advised Minako and the Queen to do, had they been in the same position.

There in the third tier, as in the rest of the palace, the scars of the recent wars could be seen. The grounds were still in rough condition, clearly lower on the list of priorities than the buildings themselves. Those too, especially in the middle tiers which were sparsely inhabited, whereas the lower tiers, where soldiers and civil servants lived, were very well maintained. Matoko nodded her approval.

"Always keep your troops happy. Or you won't have any _and_ you won't have a head!"

They missed lunch, wandering through the maze of a structure, and were found by a rather frantic servant to have dinner with Endymion. They hastily followed the older woman.

"I'm sorry, I should have found you sooner. His Majesty has very strict rules about dinner." They shared a look of speculation, but went to the quiet, rather formal dinner with the Shitennou. Zoisite smiled at her when she entered, but did not otherwise engage her. Instead, she found herself seated next to Kunzite, having a surprisingly animated conversation, considering what Minako said of his personality, about the merits of novelty magic for safe defense against non-magical attackers. Minako shot her a violently jealous look as she flounced out of the room, and did not visit that night. So rest of the night Ami devoted to starting an initial sketch of the palace's structure and their purposes to update the old maps.

The third day, Zoicite showed her around the castle, and she stored the information he gave her, noting the names and purposes of the structures they'd passed yesterday. She spent most of the night with the others drawing out diagrams of the place, and making out her newly collected information. She also took down Matoko's new information on troop strength and Minako's frustrated notes on the new Terrian justice system, the rebuilding of the city, figures on troop recruitment. Minako whined about being treated like the lowest visiting dignitary, being led through to hem and haw at all their achievements.

"I was supposed to be used for my talents. Why doesn't he discuss strategy with me? Why aren't I in contact with Endymion about the moon's stability in light of this war? Why am I being bored out of my mind?"

"You wouldn't be so bothered by it if you thought Kunzite was appreciating _you _more." Matoko commented, laughing at the expression of disdain on Minako's face. Ami smothered her laugh, in favor of hearing the comeback, and leaned against the table where she'd stood drawing the map.

"Yes, well, he will. Just because Nephrite is already falling at your feet." Minako huffed.

"He is, isn't he. My god, his body is perfect. My day got so much better when he decided to take his shirt off." She murmured dreamily, eyes closed as though focusing on the image. "The beads of sweat made me want lick-"

"That's it!" Minako said loudly, heaving herself off Ami's bed. "I'm going to go see that ass and tell him I'm done being treated like I'm useless."

"Minako!" Ami said, a little taken-a-back by the swiftness of the decision and more than a little alarmed at the potential consequences.

Matoko reached out, stopping her from going after Minako. "It's inevitable. She's won't be content until this is settled. They have that kind of connection." Then she stood, kissed Ami on the temple, and left her thinking on inevitability and green eyes.

The fourth day, they got to work.

He led her to the room where controls for the whole of defense for the capital had once been kept. The room had of late only been inhabited by him, an assistant, and frustration.

Ami took in the state of the once massive chamber. At least twelve had worked in here at all times from the look of the various stations. Monitors for keeping up surveillance, a transporter, the machinery holding in place the energy barrier on the city, all of it would have once been a part of this room. To see it empty gave her an eerie feeling of disquiet. She tried to shake the feeling off, but it lingered with her in the room.

"This is what I have been working on restoring." Zoisite gesture to the transporter. It was, she noted, the standard model employed by all the planetary royal houses.

"I'm familiar with the technology. Have you identified the problem?"

"I've been working on getting the necessary parts." His face showed a strain that concerned her. He buried it quickly, smiling softy at her. "But there seems to be damage beyond the machinery. I would love having another opinion."

"I'd be happy to." Ami moved quickly, sliding into the crawl space beneath the machine with a comfort and ease which astonished him.

He sat back at the chair beside the control panel and watched her periodically tighten a bolt, tut at a sloppy repair, or run a scan of some component part. He found it increasingly difficult to focus on the few comments she threw out, most about the salvageable pieces, as her shirt grew increasingly damp against her skin, allowing him a better view of the sinues of her muscles, the planes of her stomach and hips, the rise of her breasts. He lost focus completely as he watched the sporadic beads of sweat from her elevated neck creep down her skin, slipping beneath the fabric of her light colored top.

Ami dusted her hands on her shirt, oblivious to Zoisite's rapt gaze. "Who last controlled the capital?"

He blinked, trying to recover use of his jaw, "Why?"

"Because whoever did shorted the system accidentally by trying to operate it on a non-compatible energy source. This was built to run on the positive magnetic force of your planet's poles. It looks like someone tried to crudely force it to fun on some alternate current."

"What type of power source?"

She sat up, entering information into her computer quickly. "I don't recognize it. I'll send away to the full moon archives for a match. Until then, you guess is just as good as mine. Better, even, since you know your planet better."

Zoisite sighed, stretching out to his full length. "Well, at least the problem is less asinine than the one I was having trying to replicate parts to fix it. At least there is a good reason it's not working." He offered her a hand up, which she accepted.

"Asinine?"

Zoisite smiled wryly, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "This is ridiculous; you'd have every right not to believe me except that in this case it's true. The reason why I moved to the capital to work on this machine instead of working on it from my own home, where all of my equipment is, was because the pieces kept getting stolen by the local vigilante monkey gang. With all my replacement parts gone, I had no choice but to return here and work on fixing the parts I already had."

Ami smiled and nodded. She noted then he looked at her strangely, as though waiting from some reaction. She scanned her mind, trying to place the word 'monkey' in her fairly through mental record. She came up blank. It had to be some group created after the revolution. But then why did he look at her like she should know what he was talking about? She entered it into a search quickly, making it look like she was taking final notes. No records.

"Well," Zoisite began, "We'd better go back up. I've kept you too long. Let me have dinner sent you your room so you can rest."

But Ami, being Ami, was not about to let this drop. "Not at all. I can have dinner with the others in the main hall. Won't you walk with me?"

"You don't wish to get changed?" He asked, for his own sake, but it came out more hesitant than he'd intended, since he was rather pleased at her request.

"I'm fine. Matoko and Nephrite come in every day in worse shape. I'm sure no one will think the worse for it. Unless you think I really should." She looked up at him, wondering if she looked the bad.

"No, no." He answered quickly. "I just thought you'd be more comfortable. But if you'd like it, I would love to walk with you to dinner. The others should be back by now." He offered his arm, even though the heat and bare skin made the gesture impractical.

She took it, all the same. "So tell me," She asked as they passed the first bend in the path back up the the living quarters of the palace. "How did these 'monkeys' undermine your mission?"

He grimaced. "Ah, I didn't think you'd let that go. You're kind not to laugh. Everyone else did. Well, they're horrible creatures by nature, I'm sure of it. They have about the same effect on my projects as Nephrite. They come in, get curious, poke around, and things inevitably break or go missing following their visit. I lost nearly all of my supplied with which to build a new transporter to them. Just the monkeys, not Nephrite."

She smiled widely, but her mind was processing. Creatures? They were some sort of animal then? "And they always tinker in your work space?"

He nodded solemnly. "The battle rages on. I'm still looking over my shoulder. You have anything like that? Something which always evades you."

Ami's eyes darkened. "Yes." Her voice filled with scorn.

He looked at her in amazement. Her features were hard as the ice she controlled, and just as fragile. "May I ask what irks you so, lady?"

She looked up at him, and then looked away, biting her lip slightly. "No, it's silly really." He coaxed and assured her of his interest until at length she mumbled a single word reply.

"I'm sorry, I missed that."

She frowned, blushed, answered a little more audibly, "Gardening."

Zoisite was sure he'd heard her wrong. "Gardening, Ami?"

She nodded solemnly, "Yes. I never seem to get the hang of it. I love flowers, and ferns- oh, I adore the ferns that Matoko keeps in her private garden! They come in the most beautiful shades of gold, red, and green. But I can never grow them myself."

Zoisite fought back a smile. Of all the things to covet, she coveted plants. "You tried?"

"And failed miserably. Matoko makes it look so easy. She saw me admiring them, and potted me a few of her cuttings. They grew beautifully for a few weeks, but the artificial light in my room, made to mimic the light back home, doesn't give them enough light. They died. I tried to start a few cuttings myself, so Matoko wouldn't know I killed them."

Zoisite coughed a laugh at the image of Ami stealing into Matoko's gardens and running off into the night with handfuls of ferns. She looked at him, a certain sharpness about her normally soft features, as though she was used to such treatment, and did not believe his cough, not for a second. "I'm sorry. Please, go on."

"Well," Ami began slowly, a little sullenly, "I tried to grow them in my office, where the light was better. Still no luck. I tried a patch of the palace garden, out of the way, where Matoko wouldn't see. But it just didn't work. It's so frustrating to have no ability what so ever with plants."

Zoisite smiled at the idea it gave him. "You'd like my home, then, it's very green. Very easy to grow things there. Different from the capital. Beautiful flora."

Her eyes shone with a greedy, child-like excitement, "Oh, could we go?" She asked before she could stop, think about it, or be ashamed at seeking an invite. The shame hit her almost instantly, and she flushed, unused to being comfortable enough with any acquaintance to be anything less than textbook polite, never mind accidentally rude. "I'm sorry. I got ahead of myself. Don't think you have any obligation do anything as ludicrously familiar as to take me home with you."

His mind raced at the implications. "Oh, I'd love to take you home with me. I'm sure we can spare a few days, if you'd like, while the moon archives are being scanned. We can't do much till then, can we?"

She protested further about how she was rude to even request it, while Zoisite admittily maintained that he would be honored to show he his home and that she would be rude to refuse so many offers from him.

She thought for a moment as they turned the corner into the dinning hall. "Are sure there is nothing else you could use my help with?"

"Anything else would be beneath you talents, I assure you. We have others who can work on it. How much do you know about the earth's topography?" He asked, pulling out her chair for her.

"Too little, I'm afraid. I'm aware of variation in species and climate by continent, but I'd love to know more of the details."

They spent dinner in easy conversation.

Ami was walking so light she barely registered the blackness of the mood in the sitting room connecting the three suites of rooms.

"You two looked cosy." Matoko said, with a certain satisfaction.

Ami blushed lightly. "He's being very kind, trying to make me feel at ease. It makes it much easier to work."

"That's all? I haven't seen you glow like this, well, ever."

"I'm just excited about getting out for a bit tomorrow. He promised to show me his homeland. We'll be gone for three days. I thought I should let you know." She directed this more to Minako, who had been sitting in a stunned silence this whole time.

Minako's head snapped up, "Three days?"

Ami's head lowered at the tone, so accusatory. "Yes. It will take a day to get there, a day there, a day to get back."

"How is this him working on the transporter?"

"We have a few days before I get back the results I need from the Moon. I can't do anything till then. So, he said he'd show me another climate, his homeland."

"That's all well and good, so they get another of us off alone, separated from the others. I'm already worried about Rei."

"Minako," Matoko said firmly but kindly, "I know you're reeling right now, but she'll be fine. Both of them will be fine. It's natural to feel a little out of sorts."

Ami looked to Minako, whose face turned, so she only caught her profile. "Are you okay, Mi?"

Minako shook her head once and stood. Matoko stood with her, a distinctly protective expression on her face. Minako looked at her. "If I wanted to talk about, I would have told you I changed my mind. I haven't." She turned to Ami. "Be safe, please."

She was alone as they both left, Matoko flying after Minako without a word. It was then that Ami registered the bruises on Minako's neck and arms, and her absence at dinner.

Her guilt and anxiety ate at her all night.

She up with the sun the next morning, having not slept well. Her feelings about Minako were so at odds with the excitement she felt. He was at her door with a tray when she was barely dressed and certainly not emotionally settled.

"I rather hoped to catch you undressed; it's why I came so early. But I see you beat me to it." He smiled at her lazily.

She smiled softly. "I'm only letting you in because you have coffee." She quipped, voice light, opening the door wider to admit him.

"A fellow addict?"

She nodded, "Naturally." She took his offered cup with relish. "You're good to me, even if it was for unsavory ends."

He sat down across from her, feet up on the side of the chair. "So, you packed and ready to go?"

She nodded again, speech always too difficult in the mornings. "How are we traveling?"

"Oh, I have a little trick. It'll get us there faster, but we'll be exhausted or the rest of the day. That's why I thought we needed three days to make this happen. Ready?"

She set down her coffee cup, now empty. "As I'll ever be." She took his offered arm.

"It's a breeze. Just, don't think about it, and hold on. We'll be there in no time. Get ready."

"From here, I don't understand."

"You will."

She did.

She woke up the lamp light of a warm room. Someone was humming in the corner.

"Ah, you're awake." The humming had stopped, and she realized it must have been Zoicite. "That was easier than I expected. We're usually down for a whole day when we try to transport someone other than ourselves. It must be your power lending itself to the process."

"What do you mean, it's evening already." She looked distressed, "We've lost the whole day."

"Not at all." He smiled on her. "You've only been out a couple of hours. The time is different here than it is back at the capital. It has to do with the way the sun travels. It's night here while it is day where we just left. It will be morning here soon. We'll arrive very late day after tomorrow, when we return to the capital. Come, let me show you the house. We'll see the grounds and the jungle when there's light."

She stood from the low couch she'd been resting on, still a little shaky, and followed him out of what must have been a study, the walls paneled in books, the walls and furniture in carved dark wood, bright teal, with red touches and accents.

She followed into the open hallway, the warm, damp night air flowing in between the long sheaths of teal silk which hung from the open sides of the of the passageway. The light shone in gold, red, and teal from the hanging glass lanterns which were hung everywhere. She could see the boundaries of the compound by where the light stopped. Beyond that was darkness so profound she had never seen its equal, except in the expanses of the deep sea.

"Come on, lovely. This is the east corner of the place. It's where I do most of my paperwork, reading, that sort of thing. Over there," He pointed to the opposite hall, across the wide courtyard. "In the west corner, Are the guest rooms. I've had your things put there." He took her hand, leading her along.

"There is so much color. It's beautiful." She reached up, toying with the silk hangings as they walked. Her time on the moon seemed to be skewing her view.

"Wait till the sun comes up, if you think this is something." He beamed at her, glad to find a way to please her. "Like I said, you'll love it."

"This is the north side, where I keep my workshop. You can see where I've had such trouble." He lead her into the room, flicking on the lights with a snap, the candles catching all at once.

"It's so open air." She said, walking in, thinking of her own tightly, clinically contained space. And how different it was, this large, sunlight-ceilinged room.

She suddenly heard him curse and frantically begin smacking at his leg.

"Stupid..." He smacked at it again. "Watch where you step. I hate it when my maid leaves the windows open at night in here."

Ami felt a movement on her arm, where it rested against a table. She pulled up her arm, and came eye to eye with a strange blue-green insect whose wings flickered at her when she got too close. She remembered something, and smiled, understanding. "Ah, monkeys! These do look like they would be bothersome, flying all over, crawling into things. But how do they carry away your two-inch twisted bolts. They don't look strong enough." She looked up at him curiously.

Zoisite stood very still for a few seconds, trying to process what she meant. It was worse when it clicked. "You...you think these are monkeys." He more stated than said, his voice very calm, just the faintest hint of shocked disbelief noticeable in his slow words.

She paused, her face showing a wide-eyed trust. "They aren't?"

Zoisite laughed sporadically for the next hour but refused to explain as he gestured to the rising sun and led her to the east again to watch it rise.

Zoicite was right. She did love his home. The gardens and the jungle beyond were so alive. The heat seemed to make time move slowly, and the sun always seemed high, the shadows short.

They were lazy, walking through the dense jungle, examining the flowers she'd never seen before. He was patient, letting her linger to sketch one orchid in particular, grabbing down fruit from a nearby branch, making himself comfortable, leaning against the trunk of a high tree. When she'd finished, he took her to what he imagined would be her favorite spot.

Around the back of the compound they went, to the base of the mountain, where a small, bright green pool of water shone.

"Join me?" He asked. Pulling off his shirt, stepping in in his linen pants.

She looked down at her dress, which was made of layers of very light cotton gauze, as all the moon's gowns were. She knew what happened when they got wet. They were not only see, through, they got heavy. The worst possible choice for swimming.

"Come on, it's your element right. Show me what you've got." He raised his hands out, in the universal gesture of challenge

Ami raised an eyebrow. She hated to admit it, but nothing brought out the worst in her like competition. "If you insist." She stood next to him. "To the other shore and back?"

"That's a long way, you sure?" He asked.

She nodded, "I think I can make it."

"On three. One. Two. Three." He was trailing behind her in no time, even thought the dress took down her speed by at least a fourth. She waited by the shore they'd took off from as he reached her, his expression amazed.

"I'll never challenge you again, Ami. I've learned. Could have told me you were the best in the universe."

"I'm not. Neptune can take me, if I'm off even a little. We're matched." He sat at her side, too close, she thought for a moment. She found herself leaning closer. He reached an arm out behind her, leaning on it, but not touching her. He noticed the wistful way she looked at the water.

"I should get us lunch. Or, well early dinner. You must be starving." He waved her off as she tried to stand. "Stay, swim. It calls to you, I can see it in your eyes. I understand." She thought to protest, but warm water was always a draw.

When he returned, carrying the tray himself, she was in furious laps back and forth across the pool. She was stunning: bright limbs, pale and perfect in the water, her hair that unearthly shade of blue, the same as her eyes, which though he could not see them now, he remembered the color of perfectly. She stopped at the end of this lap, looking up at him, not exactly smiling, eyes bright, a challenge. He'd never seen anything he wanted to prove himself to more, short of Endymion. She grabbed the gauze pile at the water's edge, holding it to her chest as she reached the edge of the water. He was amazed he hadn't noticed she was nude before.

"It was impossible to move in, and a sheer as if I wore nothing." She justified it. "But I'm afraid I won't be able to get out to join you. That doesn't look comfortable to sit on like this."

He thought for a moment. "Tie that on and swim to meet me at the dock's end, you'll be covered there still but I can hand you food."

She looked at him, expression uncertain, but followed his instructions. He met her at the end, offering her pieces of deep orange fruit, bites of a small fish, sips of a liquor which tastes exactly like honey, honey which turned to fire in your throat. "That's good. Serenity would like it. Sweet." She drank more from the cup he'd handed her.

"Easy now. It's potent too." Ami laughed.

"Then she'd love it." Ami began to flush before his eyes, and he noted that it suited her nicely. She tipped her head into the cool water and the image it gave him of her flushed and writhing beneath him was so clear that he gasped and turned away. "Everything okay?"

"Fine."

Ami drained the cup, sitting it back on the dock, turned her back to him, tossing her gown onto the dock beside him, diving back in. Zoisite had a very bad feeling about this. It was then that he heard it.

"Oh god. No. Not now." He stood, rushing to to put the tray inside the small room at the end of the dock, connected to the main house by another long corridor of pillars and silk, hoping that they would follow the tray of food and leave the couple alone.

"Zoisite?" He turned to see her, aghast face, point at the dock. Sure enough, at the end, three monkeys had descended on some fruit he'd dropped as he rushed away. What worried him more was that they had picked up his discarded shirt and her dress.

"DAMN MONKEYS!" He screamed, the endless frustration they caused him peaking, running after them as they swung, mocking him he was sure, into the tree and out of sight. Ami laughed at him openly.

"Oh, so that's a monkey. Quite troublesome. I see your point entirely. Oh well, it's no problem, I'll just borrow some of that." He froze, unable to look away, though he knew he should have, when she walked past him as if it were nothing. He made a vague effort of covering herself with an arm and a hand on her way past him reaching for one of the silk pieces hung between the pillars. She wrapped it around herself. "There. Decent."

Zoisite shifted uncomfortably, taking a seat on one of the benches lining the corridor. This was getting unbearable. Decent! The wet silk did nothing to hide her hard nipples or the movement of her thighs. And she said decent. She was doing this on purpose. That had to be it. No, no one could be as depraved as Jadeite.

"I should go get a change of clothes."

Zoisite thanked his lucky stars, until she walked past him, and slipped into his lap.

"Oh. I'm sorry about that." She reached for the silk, which had slipped, blushing. She pulled it back up, and moved to pull herself back up. Zoisite hissed painfully and Ami started. "What's wrong?"

He looked at her in disbelief. This was too much. She was the worst tease he'd ever encountered. She had to know where her hands were, but she kept looking at him in a tipsy innocence. "Nothing. Nothing. Here let me help you." He lifted her, setting her on her feet, keeping on arm around her waist since she was slightly wobbly.

She smiled up at him sweetly. "Thank you." She cocked her head coquettishly, and pursed her lips. "Hm."

Zoisite couldn't help but ask; he was enchanted. "What is, lovely one?"

"You're really pretty beautiful. Do you know that?" Zoisite felt the familiar comeback in his throat, to whenever he was called bitch-pretty by Jadeite, but he stopped himself. There was nothing malicious here.

"You find me beautiful?" She nodded up at him. He angled her so that she was facing him now. Her skin seemed to shine from the inside. "You're pretty beautiful too."

She blushed again. but did not look away.

"I'd like to kiss you." He said, already moving one hand to the small of her back, the other to her jaw. To his amusement, she pursed her lips again, brow furrowed.

"I think I'd like that too." She said, voice slightly amazed. He smiled at her reaction, and obliged.

He touched her gently, knuckles brushing her back, as his lips encouraged hers. Quickly, she began respond. Her lips met his, as he set up a playful rhythm, soft slow kisses, light brushes of their lips, dipping to kiss below her ear, tracing the line of her jaw with his lips, and back again to her lips.

Ami found her body thought it was too playful. Her hands were rooming, sliding down his waist, running back and forth against the lines of his hipbones.

Zoisite shuddered. It was slow, delicious agony. He pulled her closer, wanting to gage her reaction to this getting serious.

Ami stilled. Not a light haze of alcohol, a heavy haze of lust, or her own innocence could make her mistake that he wanted her, not when the evidence was hard against her hip. She pulled back to look at him.

Zoisite saw her hesitation and it cleared his mind, enough. "Not tonight, love. Not when you've been drinking. I want you to know you want this, stone cold sober. I want you that way. Just know that. Let me get you back to your room now." He picked her up, figuring it faster, and carried her back.

She didn't argue. Her mind was reeling and fluffy feeling, like it had been replaced with candy floss while her attention was, well, diverted. So much for being unromantic.

The next day, she awoke in the room adjoining his, cuddling a pillow, an arm and leg hooked around it, smiling to herself. She was grateful for the distance from the Senshi who would have given her hell about it, if they'd woken her in such a state. Especially if they known about yesterday.

Yesterday. Ami rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling. She wondered if he'd let it go, if he'd be awkward, if she could avoid being the same. She didn't have much time to consider it because a maid was bringing her breakfast.

It was still fairly early here, she guessed from the play of the light. It would be noon or so back in the capital. She wondered how the others were. Her anxiety about Minako hit her like knife in the back, sudden and full of fury. Her original guilt at having not noticed her wounds was dwarfed by her guilt at having forgotten it in her contentment.

She stood at the balcony, taking in the beautiful expanse of green, with flashes of hot colors. She was hit with another rush of sadness when she realized she would miss this, back on the moon. She wondered if there this would all seem like a dream, insubstantial, unreal. She wondered if they'd ever have a chance to come back, ever have a chance to be like this again. She didn't feel good about the odds.

When she knocked on the door to his room, her mood was heavy as the oppressive air that had driven them to the water the day before.

"Enter." She opened the door and noticed his bedroom had the a softer color scheme than the rest of the house, more white, blue, and green. She told herself to ask him about that, someday.

"Ah, Ami," He said standing, "Awake already. I hoped you would be. We have a few hours yet before I should get us back to the capital. I'd like you to do something with me before we go."

She loved that he gave her no time to brood or be awkward. It just wasn't their dynamic, as Matoko would say.

She followed him down to from his room, down the winding stone steps out to the other side of the gardens they'd been in yesterday. She looked at it, surprised at the bare dirt.

"I thought you might like to have a place to have that garden." He said it easily, simply, rolling up a sleeve on his light cotton shirt. "Well, are you going to give me a hand. I didn't know what you might like, so, I have some options. Some ferns I thought you particularly might like."

Ami bit back the tears which were forming and nodded, and focused entirely on picking out specimens.

They spent the day in quiet, laying out the plants, ferns and flowers in blues and golds mostly, in patterns of circles and arches. When they finished, it was well past noon. Ami sat on a bench in the newly planted space.

"Thank you, You don't know what this means to me." She said, voice heavy with emotion. He kneeled in front of her.

"No, I don't think you know what this means to me, Ami." She looked at him, questioning. "Listen, Ami. I want you to know that you mean something to me. I don't do this for just anyone. I'm not that generous. This garden is a lure, a promise, a common interest, a meeting place. It's my way of making you a piece of my home. It's my way of saying, this does not end here. This is going somewhere. Let it." She was silent, thinking it over. He sighed, but did not comment on it again.

He offered her his hand, and they were off, back to the capital.

Ami awoke the next day very early, before the sun rose, her internal clock all off from the time away and the time passed out after the return trip. She had no idea how long she'd been out or asleep.

She'd gone to see Minako and Matoko, but neither had answered.

Unnerved, she threw herself into her work, unwilling and unsure of how to respond to his demand that she decide what happened between them and to the absence of her sisters. Lucky for her, there was plenty to go over, newly sent from the moon's archives.

The energy they'd encountered matched nothing in the records exactly. She could only find three possible similarities. One was a reference to some organic material left in the aftermath of the dark moon uprising in the time of the founding of the current dynasty, when the first Serenity had used her magic to clear the white moon of the traces of evil left behind by the enemy.

The second was less useful, it just referred to a magical residue, in general, found in the aftermath of trauma to the energy of the land.

The third gave her pause. It referred to a profile left by the last Mars, an aunt of Rei's, who had spent a great deal of her time as priestess feeling compelled to study possession and control by external entities. It was the story of a woman Mars had taken down, a Plutonian, who had been exhibiting strange behavior and had to be exorcised. Her body showed the same traces of energy seen on the machinery.

She went to find Zoisite. She needed to check the Earth's records for similar stories. She asked one of the maids where he would likely be. They directed her a tier up, to his office, on the south wing, naturally.

She located the room easily, but was surprised by the sterility of the wing compared with his home. She knocked tenuously.

"Ah, Ami." He said, expression undeniably pleased. "I an beginning to be able to tell when it's you by the way you knock, or that you do knock, I should say. No one else is as worried about disturbing me. Come in and tell me to what I owe the honor."

"Well," The room was so white and cold, she frowned. "I need to see you archives here. I want to se if you have any matches to what the moon has seen with energy anomalies like this."

"Are you alright?" He asked, taking her hand. She swung to face him.

"Oh, yes, it's just." She blushed, "It's stupid, but the room. It's so..."

"Kunzite?" He smiled, "Yes, well, this is all a little new. No one has had time or the motivation to personalize it. Now, shall I show you to the records. I can't guarantee they're complete, not after the last king's reign. Things, well, got unorthodox."

He showed her to the fourth level and opened a nondescript little door and let her into the high ceilinged room, columns of floor to ceiling drawers.

"You want help?" She took a deep breath and nodded.

"Sure. I want records of possession, and I believe you call it demonic possession. Especially of important figures."

He eyed her strangely. "I'm trusting you on this, but I admit my doubts as to what this can yield. You could start here, palace history. I'll take the more general healer records for the city."

Ami dug right in. It seems there was rather a history of second sons going mad and being accused of possession. But she had a feeling that may have been just a convenient excuse for putting the dangerous spare heir somewhere where the could always be monitored than legitimate proof of possession. She wondered about a reference to sending them to Elysian to keep them sane.

She was midway through the records of the rule of Julian the fourth when she ran across a very unofficial looking document. It looked like a journal, a silk-covered journal, had been shoved haphazardly into the drawer. It looked younger than most of the records. She looked at Zoisite pouring over the last two centuries of records before opening it.

She nearly chocked when she read the opening not, hastily scribbled into the page.

"This is the account of my life and death, Ava, Queen of the Earth, wife of Theseus, given to my loyal maid to be put in the records. It you're reading this, one of my ladies has killed me and I seek vindication."

Ami nearly slammed it shut, glancing at the oblivious Zoisite. Then she did what she always did, she dug in. She flipped through the childish early writings, accounts of picnics with her father, squabbles with her elder brothers. She read through her ascension to the throne with particular interest. The story of almost lost love causing her heart rate to accelerate.

Ami felt a sense of panic rising in her as Ava recounted how in her shyness, the king had mistaken her nerves for indifference and had almost chosen an rival for his wife. She blushed when she read how Ava took matters into her own hands, waiting for him in his rooms naked, asking if she looked indifferent, recording that after,

"I could not believe how little effort it took on my part, except getting up the courage to walk over from the bath and drop my robe to confirm both of our feelings. After that, it had all been him, and my beloved professed his love in numerous ways..."

Ami did close it at that, slipping it into her gown, feeling flushed after her eyes skimmed ahead. Later, she promised herself, she'd pick up there.

But for now, for some reason, all she could see was him, hand twisted in his dark bronze hair, loosely tired back. She wondered what it would be like to get tied it in herself. She felt the familiar desire to run from feeling this rawly, this vulnerable. But Ava's story was too timely, too frightening for her to forget. She made a decision.

"Zoisite." He looked up, distant still, in his work. "I'm tired and I haven't seen the other senshi yet. Shall I find you later to finish here? Maybe after dinner?"

He stood stretching out his neck, "Ami, that sounds perfect. Can I walk you back to your rooms?"

"No, I think I should head to Minako's room instead." She noticed his smile faulter. "What was that about?"

He put a hand to the back of his neck, "You haven't seen anyone else since being back, have you?" He nodded, his eyebrows raising as he looked away, "Then I think you should be seeing your ladies now."

He kissed her hand gently and left her. Ami let the door slide shut before she took off in a run in the toward Minako's room.

Ami waited in the room for Minako to return. Matoko came in first, tension written all over her features.

"Thank goddess you're back." She sat down next to her, leaning her head back against the couch. Ami noted she looked much more manicured and cleaned-up than she had been looking before she left.

"Not training today?" Matoko looked up at her.

"No. We have found a problem. Minako has been taking care of it at Kunzite's bequest. I have been helping her rather than working with the troops."

"Is it serious?" Matoko tipped her head back and forth, pursing her lips.

"Maybe. Not for us, not as far as we've seen. But it could be fore the Terrians. It's been a trying few days for everyone."

"And Minako, how is she?"

"Better, I think. This is all new to her and her confidence about such things is low. He is not an easy man to love, either. And he takes to his relations with her unconventionally. I'm just waiting for the council to get involved after the oracle."

"The oracle!" Ami said slightly panicked. "When?"

"Yesterday. You missed all the excitement."

"They were found worthy?"

"Yes. Minako spoke truly about her feelings. It should give Rei some comfort to know the oracle blessed it." Ami just nodded in reply, slightly stunned. It was all happening too quickly.

"And you? How are you, Matoko?"

"Strangely happy despite it all. Nephrite and I are beginning to understand each other. He's a very generous lover." Matoko's smile was not gloating or dreamy as Ami was used to. It held a calm contentment which put Ami at ease.

"And you?"

"Yes, and you, Ami?" Minako's rich voice flooded the room.

Ami looked at her hungrily, but saw none of the bruises she'd seen earlier.

"I'm concerned about you, Minako." Ami said shortly.

"I'm well. As you can see." And Minako, who always seemed to glow in her beauty really did shine more brightly now, though not in the contented way Matoko did. "My, my, look at you Ami. Just look at you! Someone has been treated well. Your eyes are all glowy. But you're so tense too! Like you're hiding something...did you sleep with him?"

Ami looked at Minako incredulously. When she'd last left her, she'd raged at Ami for getting too close to the general, and now all Minako was doing was teasing her? "No, Minako. I did not sleep with him. You warned me to be on guard."

"Oh Ami," Minako waved her off, sitting on the coffee table in front of the two women on the couch. "You know better than to take me that seriously when I'm angry."

Ami did not tell her that she hadn't really taken her that seriously, just that she hadn't slept with him yet. Yet. The very word surprised her, but she knew what was coming. She felt the pressure of her own feelings and of a warning from the past circling around her, pushing her forward to a certain end.

"I will remember, Minako." Minako looked at her closely.

"You're falling for him." She said simply, holding Ami's eyes. "That makes three of us. I'll have to count on Rei to hold out. So are you going to sleep with him."

"Do I have to answer that, commander? Or am I allowed to keep somethings private?"

Minako raised her hands in a gesture of submission. "Of course, of course. You don't have to get so cold about it Ami. Though I do respect you becoming such a romantic about it that you won't share what goes on between you two even with your friends. Good luck, my sister. Go with my blessing." She kissed Ami's head gently. Ami smiled back; Minako's blessing was indeed always welcome. "Dinner?"

Dinner was an altogether warmer affair than Ami remembered. Everyone had paired off, leaving Endymion with an amused, slightly amazed expression on his face as he watched the three couples. Ami felt herself blush when he turned his attention away from the scorching, silent tension between Minako and Kunzite and the playful tentative banter between Nephrite and Matoko, the former appearing to be trying to win the latter's favor, to look at Zoisite's undivided focus on her.

Her heart was beating too fast as they leaned into one another, mostly talking business, some back and forth teasing, monkeys and silk.

After dessert was served, Endymion asked the generals to meet him before seven, and left the table first. Ami took a moment to observe the silent agreement pass between the other two couples to meet on another later and looked to Zoisite. He smiled at her expectantly.

"We should be done by nine. Would you like to come up and talk or can I come bother you?" Ami smiled at his presumption.

"I'll find you." She said smoothly, her confidence rising. He smiled at her, looking up at the room. The others had left. He smoothly pulled her up from her chair and kissed her roughly on the lips. Ami pulled back after a few moments seeking his eyes. He smiled slightly sheepishly.

"Wanted to do that all day. See you tonight."

Ami took a bath with Ava's diary, half expecting a summons from Minako. None came.

Instead, she delved into the rather raunchy records of Ava's early marriage, and the birth of her first son. It kept her distracted as she went about dressing her hair and putting on make-up, carefully ignoring the fact that she was not changing out of the dressing gown she'd been sent with her other things from the Queen.

She inspected her work and left the room. Her heart beat spiked erratically at the sounds in the hall, so sure at any moment she'd get caught. She hardly breathed before she turned the corner onto his wing. She knocked lightly.

"Come in, Ami." Zoisite's voice called. She took a deep breath and entered. He didn't appear immediately. His voice called from the next room. "I'll be right there. I'm just picking up some files Endymion asked me to review again about the incidents with the soldiers. Make yourself at home."

He came out, head buried in the file.

"So strange! The men have complete background with credentials. I don't see any sigh of them being forged. I don't understand it. It-" He looked up to see her sitting there in a white satin robe and nothing else, her hair and make-up flawless, everything about her lumionus. "Ami..."

She raised the courage she'd honed since childhood to face down anything and stood, looking at him defiantly.

"I'm sober Zoisite. Stone cold sober. It's not a matter of needing more time to choose now." Zoisite stared at her, his usually lightening brain slow. His brain seemed to entirely cease activity when she untied her robe and let it slip from her shoulders. When his eyes made it to her face and saw her cheeks burning and her eyes glued to the floor.

"Ami. Ami tell me you mean it." But already he had crossed the room and was standing so that any further movement would allow him to touch her. He could see her shaking and it gave him pause. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." She said softly. He lifted her face to meet his. His eyes were hot and yet unsure. "Yes. I am sure."

She shivered as his hands brushed against her breasts slowly as they travelled to her up her chest to her neck. He moved slowly, breathing growing labored.

"Since that day at the lake, I've been tormented by the memory of the light on your skin, of the way you tasted like honey and the bright clean way water tastes from a spring." He brushed his lips against hers gently, his tongue dipping in to taste her. "Yes, that taste. Heaven."

He kissed her again, trailing his fingertips in light strokes across her back, her hips, her abdomen. Ami trembled at the coolness of his fingertips as they brushed lower before continuing their travels.

His lips moved to her neck and she heard herself make a sound she'd never made before another person in her life, a deep satisfied purr. Zoisite's hands became firmer in their caresses

"Gods, you're magnificent." He cooed into her chest in the space between her breasts. He lifted her up, relishing the way her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist, and carried her to his room. "You deserve something finer than my undecorated room to be worshiped in." He took a deep breath of her skin and stepped back, his expression rapt, hand extended. The surrounds began to shift, until she was back in his vibrantly colored bedroom from his home.

"How-"

"It is my gift. Jadeite can do something similar, changing the appearance of people. It's only an illusion, though. But I thought it might be more hospitable than some sterile white room." Ami smiled at him brilliantly. Tempted as she was to ask for details, he was looking at her nude form with too much awe for her to focus on anything else.

Ami stretched out against the soft blue sheets, "Yes, much better. But aren't you coming to bed?" Zoisite practically leaped across the room and onto the bed, yanking off his shirt before assaulting her lips. This time he held nothing back, letting his hand slip between her legs.

He drew his wet fingers up his mouth and tasted them, holding her eyes, "Delicious. I want more." He drew his head down, lingering at her breasts, before locking eyes with her, watching her watch him pull her legs over his shoulders and taste her slowly.

She could hardly even breath as he continued to vocally trace her sex, moaning into her skin, slipping in two fingers, starting a rhythm in tandem with his mouth.

"You're so tight" he managed in between strokes. Ami tensed slightly, realizing she had yet to tell him why, but the thought was chased from her head as his pace picked up, causing her legs to shake., pulling the mews from her lips

"Please!" She called out, unable to stand it much longer, knowing that she was at his mercy. He pulled back, slipping off his pants and throwing them across the room. She took the moment to admire the slender, perfect grace of his limbs, the contours of his torso and abs as he flexed in the gesture. He too stood back, admiring the sleek lushness of her figure, the perfect form of the virgin huntress, so often modeled in stone, her figure just as carved and smooth and curved.

"With _pleasure_." He said, pulling up one of her legs, wrapping it around his hip.

"Wait!" She said swiftly, and he looked at her curiously. "I haven't, I mean, I'm still, I-" His gaze was very curious and mildly concerned now.

"Ami, what's wrong?" She felt her self beginning to panic.

"I'm a virgin!" Came the declaration, causing Zoisite to waved for a moment.

"Do you not want to continue?" It required all the gentlemen in him to even ask as his cock throbbed at the heat of her just an inch away.

"No! I want to, I just, I don't know what to do." She said, agonized at how badly she was ruining the mood.

At that, Zoisite smiled. "Then, by all means, allow me to show you. May I?"

Ami nodded and he positioned himself between her legs and then set about kissing her thoroughly to distract her, running his length back and forth across the slick flesh between her legs. She was trembling so badly and moaning into his mouth so loudly she'd find it embarrassing later, in the endless replay of the night, but she was too far gone to care.

Without warning, she tensed as she felt him inside her body, slipping past her barrier. She hissed at the sting, feeling herself stretch around him. He held very still, breathing hard into her neck, and pushed through the final inches, his body hitting her swollen clit and causing her to pulse against him

"There you go," He said in a tight voice, pulling up on his arms to smile at her. "What a fast learner." And she began to move with him, feeling the most delicious tension building, better than any she'd experienced on her own. She was caught off guard when he pulled her up and turned her over, propping her up to sit astride him.

"Move for me, Ami. I want to see you ride me." Ami bit her lip and rolled her hip tenuously against his, and grabbed at his hips when the wave of pleasure washed over her. She moved slowly, taking in just the tip, experimenting with the feeling. "Oh god, Ami, deeper. This is torture." He tried to pull her deeper, but she resisted, taking him in again, slow and shallow. She giggled as she heard his shuddering moan. He looked up at her with unrestrained awe.

"My god. You _are_ a tease!" She laughed again, enjoying her power over him, and rolled her hips, watching his eyes roll too. But quickly the teasing became less satisfying, and she allowed him full thrusts, much to Zoisite's pleasure, the agonized yet satisfied groan indicated.

Her movements, as fluid as her element, brought them both to the edge. As they both grew close, he sat up, pulling her to him, wanting to get closer, deeper. The scent of her skin was driving him insane. One arm held her back, allowing him more leverage, while the other slipped between her legs.

"Come for me, baby." He whisper in her ear in a litany. She held onto him, feeling her whole body tense and shudder. The feeling of turning to liquid pleasure hit her as her orgasm overtook her and she collapsed against him, shaking. "God, Ami." Zoisite called to her as his body responded to hers and he flowed into her, watching her perfect skin flush, as her head rolled back, exposing her her swollen breast to his eyes, giving him the perfect visual as he finished.

"Zoisite." She leaned back into his body, "Amazing." He smiled, toughing her tighter.

"You were fantastic. So beautiful and _unmerciful_." He said, running his hands though her thick, damp locks. "Again?"

The next morning, she wanted to lie in bed, spending time with him, exploring all the contours of his flesh, learning his body, loving how he learned hers.

That was not to be. She felt her heart shock as Rei's power was suddenly interjected into this plane of the world.

"What in..." She jumped out of bed, throwing on her robe. Zoicite let the glamour fade and she was in the white room again. And the spell was broken.

"What's wrong?" He asked sitting up in bed.

"Rei's back." He nodded.

"Yeah, so is Jadeite. I felt it a second ago." She looked at him incredulously.

"That wasn't weird to you? To feel them teleport here?" Zoisite smiled, and shrugged a shoulder.

"Why would it? We do it all the time. You and I did just last week. No one panicked, or at least one of my men talked them down before anyone came bursting into your room in a panic." Ami stopped in the door way and blinked, before smiling sheepishly.

"Oh. Yes. I suppose you're right." But she frowned. "She is unconscious though. And they did just come from the wilds, without any warning. Don't you think we should check on them?"

Zoisite stood, walked naked to his dresser, grabbing out pants and a shirt. Ami stood stock still, mouth hanging open slightly. It was one thing in the heat of the moment, but men walking around her naked was something she had yet to encounter. "You're right." Zoisite threw the clothes on without ceremony, "There is not reason why Jadeite should have returned like that, not when he was so set on not revealing any of our capabilities to your senshi. Something must be up." He looked at Ami, taking in her tension. "Hey, I'm sure Mars is fine."

Ami's mouth snapped shut, blush racing across her skin. "Yes, yes. Rei. Her name is Rei. No, I would know if anything were really wrong. But I think I'll go down and get Minako and head to the infirmary now." She turned to flee from the room. He caught her hand.

"So that wasn't what you were gaping at then?" His smile held a sultry warmth. "Still my shy one, hm? Even after all the things you did to me last night?"

The images of his pained, delighted expression as she'd tasted him flashed through her head. She blushed harder, but placed her lips to his ear, nipping at his neck lightly. "Yes. Now I have to go; I have work to do."

Zoisite stood back, dazzled. "How do you always do that to me?"

Ami kept walking, a smile spreading across her lips, confidence higher than ever. She felt her hips sway, seemingly with a mind of their own. She did not look back, even at his low whistle of appreciation.

She stopped in her room to throw on clothes before rushing to Minako's. Sure enough, Minako was with Kunzite, discussing something serious, her expression indicated. The presence of his hand on her wrist, tracing circles, and the way Minako leaned into him were the only indications of any developments between them. Even that changed the instant Kunzite noticed Ami's presence. He let go, stepping back, as Minako's head snapped to the door.

"Good. I was hoping it would be you, Ami. Kunzite was just telling me that Rei and Jadeite are back, as I'm sure you know. Rei was placed in the infirmary; I'd like you to see how she is. I have no idea what she encountered out there. I'd like to just make sure."

Ami nodded. "I understand. Anything else?"

"Not yet. I'm still being briefed myself on the basics."

"Jadeite has been compiling a report of their experiences and findings." Kunzite's deep cool voice added, "I am having a copy made for Zoisite, since the original is with Endymion. I'll ask that he share it with you too. I'd very much appreciate your opinion. What I've heard briefly from Jadeite and am now sharing with Minako to pass on is very interesting."

"I would be happy to give you any help I can. May I go now, Minako?" Minako nodded, and said nothing more. Ami left as quickly as she could, before Minako notice that she had not showered yet.

Rei's vitals were all normal. She was a little dehydrated, but nothing worse. She'd be awake shortly. Matoko had come in to check as well, after having spent the morning training again after a few days spent dealing with the other problems.

"How is she? Still out?" Nephrite followed her in, thumbing through something.

"Fine. Still out, but she should be around soon. Just the usual side-effects, as I'm learning." Nephrite smiled warmly, and nodded at her, tipping the document he was reading to Ami.

"Thank you for reassuring her. I've been trying all morning that just because Jadeite took her to the infirmary first did not mean she would necessarily be in any worse shape then you were when you got back, which was just fine." He put an arm around Matoko, who looked up at him in an annoyed look that clearly said this would be discussed again, but otherwise did not react. "And I come bearing gifts for the good doctor. More work!"

Ami laughed. "It's the kind of gift I always get. I won't blame you."

"I'll appreciate it always." He dropped her a bow. ""Jadeite should be here any minute. He was dancing around Endymion's office as he answered questions, as though him moving while he did would make him tell it faster! Eager to get back to her, I'm betting. He's been eyeing her since the moment she stepped foot on this planet."

"Must be. He only left a little while before I got here, the nurse tells me. I was the first one down after Kunzite came to tell him to take his report to Endymion."

"Whipped. Just how Rei likes them." Matoko said with a week. "See you later girl." She tugged Nephrite after him, who grinned back at Ami and waved on his was out.

Ami laughed, and picked up the report and started to read.

Jadeite came sliding in shortly. "Rei?"

"Not up yet." Ami answered. He looked at her and nodded, expression grateful but eyes distracted. He sat silently on the bed until Rei woke. Ami watched their exchange, noting the playfulness. She responded to Rei's questions, holding her hand, so glad to have her returned to them.

She felt herself flush slightly when Zoisite was mentioned, who had probably gone to Endymion when she'd left. She avoided Rei's eyes, and gave her permission to leave, granting a smile for Jadeite.

She picked up the report, and continued to read.

She finished the report. The uneasy feeling was over-ridden by the sense that, perhaps, the two were connected, this energy Rei encountered, the stuff affecting the locals, and the strange energy sludge left around the transportation device. The answers were there, somewhere. She was sure of it. There was just something missing to put them all together.

She found time to shower, and took a seat beside Zoisite, who reached for her hand when she sat down, smiling at her. Rei and Jadeite were notably still absent, but everyone else seemed too absorbed in discussing the new turn of events to notice.

Endymion was planning something urgent. He and Kunzite sat at the head of the table, heads together, discussing something with animation, periodically jotting notes, or nodding at a comment. Zoisite and Nephrite seemed distracted too, as though listening in at a distance. As a result, the meal seemed too quiet, and increased Ami's anxiety.

Zoisite promised to come by her room when he was free, but that it might be late.

She nodded, and went off herself.

Hours later, after much discussion with Minako and Matoko, and the tousled Rei who joined them later into the conversation after much teasing, Ami was back in her room waiting.

It seemed clear that the capital had the energy Rei had encountered in the wilds in places still, fading mostly, but was fresh elsewhere. It was news Endymion would want. Minako promised to pass it along.

The energy at the transporter site made sense now, the current that was being used to force the system matched as well. The question she still had now was what the girl they'd captured had meant, was who her master was. And now Ami had no idea where to start.

She brooded over it until Zoisite came. He said nothing, picking her up, and carting her to the bedroom without a word. It wasn't until after he collapsed onto the slick skin of her back and caught his breath that he told her about Endymion's plan, which would mean his leaving. His hands moved over the length of her arms, and his jaw moved against her shoulder blade.

Ami felt tears slide down her face and could not say why. He would be back soon, he comforted, and negotiations were going well with the Alliance, so he would be allowed to visit her, and visa versa.

Still, her heart felt the weight bearing down on it.

She parted with Zoisite early. It took half an hour to finally get out of bed, dressed, and out the door, as Zoisite attempted to sabotage her at every turn. His invitation to join him in the bath was tempting, as was his constant changing of the surroundings of the room. She was especially loathe to leave when he changed her floor into hot sand being swept by gentle waves, beckoning a dive into the warm aqua sea beyond.

That image of them lying in the sand, and the feeling of his hands, rough textured but gentle, buzzed in her mind as she sat cloistered with the Senshi that morning.

To say it was good to have all of them together in one space was an understatement. Balance always seemed off with anyone gone. Even now, without Serenity, some of the lightness was missing, but even then, it was better than it had been.

Minako was back to laughing and teasing Ami and Rei freely, the two most recent to succumb to the generals' charms. Matoko was smiling, joining in, being the reinforcement which got Minako's threats answered. Rei was alternating between going tit-for-tat with Matoko over whose conquest showed their skill more, and fuming when Minako tried to talk to her about how romantic it all was.

And as for herself, she felt more comfortable than she had with the out of sorts Minako and concerned Matoko she'd been left with. Rei's return let her fit into any conversation more easily, and to slide away from topics she did not feel comfortable in, allowing the louder Senshi to target one another. In this way, she kept her daydreams and new desires to herself.

Instead, she chimed in when the talk turned serious, to the experiences of Rei in the tundra and of the soon departing generals. She was mildly comforted to see the faces in the room so clearly reflect her own feelings of sorrow and fear. It made her feel a little more justified.

"Two days, no more. That's what Kunzite told me this morning. I don't know how he gets word at all hours of the night unless they have a bond like we do with the Queen with Endymion." Minako said.

"I suspect as much as well." Ami replied. "I've noticed it at dinner. Like they're distracted all at the same time, focusing inward."

"It's to be expected," Rei said, "They are our equivalent here. I wonder what he wants of them."

"We'll find out soon." Matoko replied. "I wonder how your readings of the capital and the tundra affected their decision. I imagine finding the energy is the same, and as fresh here in places as there must be alarming. But this reaction, and Jadeite's to your prisoner...I keep just feeling that they know something they're not sharing, or at least suspect."

Ami nodded. "I've gotten that feeling too. There is something missing every time I try to fit the pieces together. I guess we'll have to wait."

"Then, I suggest we all spend these last two days well. Go find who you're missing ladies. I can feel it, and it is giving me a headache." Minako said with a smile, waving them off. Ami frowned slightly a her; something was still had her overly-brilliant smiles sliding off her face the instant she forgot to hold them up. But Minako was surprisingly quiet about this relationship with Kunzite which seemed to be developing. All of them were, when she thought of it, at least with regard to emotions. Ami closed the door, the last to leave. She hoped it spoke of a good kind of growing up for all of them, rather than the birth by fire they were used to.

Zoisite was in his rooms, head in a book, hand tugging at his hair. He stood to join her when she entered, but she waved him back into his seat. There was a passage she'd read in a book once which had always stuck with her, and she was very interested in trying out sex on multiple surfaces. She decided the chair was as good a place to start as any.

After the chair, the wall, the window sill, and the desk, they made it to floor, which is where they lay in lazy comfort. It had been transformed, courtesy of Zoisite, into the beach from her morning fantasies.

"I think you know I'm leaving soon." Zoisite said.

"How'd you guess?"

He laughed, pulling her closer. "Most men do not get assaulted this throughly and delightfully unless there's a good reason. And you, while you are a surprising little tease," Ami giggled, "are shy and would not have come at me, so quick to put your fantasies on the table, unless you felt there was a time-limit on them."

She laid her head over his heart. "You're right. I know. When? Two days?"

"Three at most. I don't know when we'll be back. But you will be the first thing I'll seek when I do." She smiled. "Do you want to watch the sunset?"

"They are so strange here. I'd like that."

"They're even more lovely over the ocean." He released her, letting her sit and watch.

It was about half beneath the horizon when Zoisite felt the call and Ami sensed Rei's distress and Minako's subseqent summons.

"I have to-"

"Me too. Go."

And he did.

She meet up with the others in the lowest tier's entrance way, transformed, and exited as one. She immediately began scanning the parimeter.

"Is it an enemy?" she heard Endymion ask.

Mars' voice answered. "No. Both have very pure energy. One I believe I recognize, but it is still too unclear through the barrier for me to tell for sure. Their energy is similar."

It was true. Nothing on her scan matched the energy from the tundra of the transporter.

"I am holding you accountable if I open this gate to an enemy, Senshi."

She felt Venus reach out o her heartstring. She tugged back as a confirmation.

She heard Venus answering. "Of course. Go ahead." but remained focused on her scans, trying to note any sudden changes.

The gate opened and flashed a bright blue as the protective barrier, usually unseen, was lifted. Her scans read a burst of pure light energy, child-like, earthling and yet not quite like any other she'd seen, when the horse came into view.

The horse reared up at the new figures and weapons were drawn.

She tugged on Minako when she picked up on the signature of the moon's energy close at hand.

"Wait!" Endymion shouted. The Shitennou and Senshi held their position at the sheer power in his command. "I know this energy. Look!"

At that moment, the horse reared up and took flight into the palace walls.

"My god." Zoisite said. Ami tried to keep a read as the creature barrel directly towards the inner most pavilions.

At that moment, a smaller figure approached, and Ami spun back to get a read. The figure pushed back its hood, shaking out dark curls, and Ami removed her visor. She needed not scan.

"My mistress comes," the figure said simply.

Ami felt the collective anxiety rise. She heard Venus draw in breath sharply beside her.

"No. She can't. How could you let her come alone, Luna?" Venus exploded in anger.

The woman blinked. "She would not be stopped. It was safer that I went on her powers first to see if anyone would attack her. They did not, and this way, she can enter and find refuge here, if the King here, Endymion, will give her welcome."

"Whoever asks for my hospitality in friendship shall have it. Who is you mistress?"

"Princess Serenity of course. She comes now."

Ami saw Luna channel Serenity's power through her and saw the princess emerge from the shared mark on their brows. She beamed at the gathered crowd, as usual.

Endymion dropped the blue barrier again. The princess' smile dropped too as above them the sound of a child screaming issued forth.


End file.
